 Are wages and productivity in Zimbabwe affected by human capital investment and international trade?Dorte Verner () No 2101, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank Abstract: To analyze what determines wages and productivity in Zimbabwe, the author analyzes an employer/employee data-set from Zimbabwe's manufacturing sector. The author finds that: * Formal education, training, and experience positively affect wages and productivity positively. * Women are paid roughly 37 percent less than men although they are not measurably less productive. * There is no strong indication of ethnic discrimination among employees, but Europeans are being paid more in larger firms, although they are marginally less productive than workers of African origin. * The wage premium for workers who completed secondary school does not necessarily reflectgreater productivity but may indicate a shortage of educated workers. * Workers trained in-house earn more although in-house training does not instantly affect productivity. Training by outside trainers does improve productivity but is not rewarded with higher wages. * Apprentices are paid more than non-apprentices. Perhaps an apprentice diploma serves as a screening device, when hiring. * Temporary workers are more productive than permanent workers, perhaps hoping to get a permanent contract. * Union members earn less than non-union members despite being more productive. Perhaps union members fight more to have skills upgraded than for wage increases. * Larger exporting firms are marginally less productive and pay marginally less than the average firm, but ar more productive than smaller firms (and their wages match productivity). Workers in larger woods and metals are paid less than workers in smaller firms, although they are not less productive. * Exporting firms benefit more than employees do from trade openness and greater productivity. * Foreign-owned firms are more productive than other firms (perhaps because of new technology). * Firms that employ more expatriates tend to pay more. The more expatriates there are in metals firms, the more productive the employees are, perhaps because the expatriates bring knowledge about new technology to the enterprise. * Employees in the metal and textile sectors are paid more than those in the food sector, but employees in metals are less productive than employees from other sectors. Keywords: Environmental Economics&Policies; Labor Policies; Economic Theory&Research; Banks&Banking Reform; Municipal Financial Management; Economic Theory&Research; Banks&Banking Reform; Municipal Financial Management; Health Monitoring&Evaluation; Environmental Economics&Policies (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:2101 Access Statistics for this paper More papers in Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20433. Contact information at EDIRC. |
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