Sticky Consumption and Rigid Wages

Tore Ellingsen and Steinar Holden

No 62, SSE/EFI Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance from Stockholm School of Economics

Abstract: The paper suggests a channel through which past expectations affect current wage aspirations, leading to real wage rigidity. Expectations have a long run impact on the composition of consumption, because they determine the purchase of durables. Due to adjustment costs, moderate changes in income are absorbed by non-durable consumption only. We show that when labour demand is unexpectedly low, workers are risk seeking; they prefer a risk of becoming unemployed to a substantial reduction of the real wage. Conversely, they show moderation when labour demand is unexpectedly high.

Keywords: Wage rigidity; aspirations; durables (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J51 J64 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27 pages
Date: 1995-07
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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Related works:
Chapter: Sticky Consumption and Rigid Wages (1998)
Working Paper: Sticky Consumption and Rigid Wages (1995)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:hastef:0062

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