Wages of occupations in theory⋯ and practice

Stephan Kampelmann and Francois Rycx

ULB Institutional Repository from ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles

Abstract: Conventional models of earnings assume that the occupational pay structure reflects the distribution of marginal productivities. Although ubiquitious in the literature, the underlying hypothesis that wages equal marginal products rests on weak empirical footing: extant studies from the 1970s suggested that occupations at the top of the wage hierarchy are over-and occupations at the bottom underpaid with respect to their contributions to firm-level added value. This article surveys the theoretical literature on such productivtiy-wage gaps and presents recent econometric evidence that confirms a disconnection between the remuneration and the productivity of occupational groups.

Keywords: Labour market theory; Marginal productivity; Occupations; Wage inequality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
Note: SCOPUS: ar.j
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published in: Reflets et perspectives de la vie économique (2011) v.50 n° 4,p.119-131

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ulb:ulbeco:2013/169130

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://hdl.handle.ne ... lb.ac.be:2013/169130

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in ULB Institutional Repository from ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Benoit Pauwels ().