Wage Determination under Communism and in Transition: Evidence from Central Europe

Swati Basu (), Saul Estrin () and Jan Svejnar
Additional contact information
Swati Basu: McGill University
Saul Estrin: London School of Economics

No 1276, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Using large firm-level data sets from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary, we show that the wage behavior of firms changed considerably as these economies launched their transitions to a market system. We find evidence of worker sharing in their enterprise rents and losses at the end of the communist period in some economies and within a year after the launching of the transition, we find rent sharing in all of them. Using the Czech and Slovak data we show that the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) that existed under communism and survived allow for less worker rent-sharing than other firms. We also test for the presence of a wage curve and with the exception of Slovakia we do not find a significant association between local unemployment and wages. Finally, we do not find significant effects of firm ownership on wages.

Keywords: wages; rent-sharing; transition economies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J30 J41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 22 pages
Date: 2004-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eec, nep-lab and nep-tra
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Working Paper: Wage Determination Under Communism and In Transition: Evidence from Central Europe (2004)
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