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The Determinants of Relative Wage Change in Australia
Author(s) -
Webster Elizabeth,
Tseng YiPing
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
australian economic review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.308
H-Index - 29
eISSN - 1467-8462
pISSN - 0004-9018
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8462.00224
Subject(s) - wage , proxy (statistics) , economics , bargaining power , labour economics , wage growth , wage bargaining , demographic economics , microeconomics , statistics , mathematics
This article uses data from 3500 Australian workers to investigate which factors have had a significant influence on microeconomic wage growth over the years 1997 to 2000. The relative importance of four types of factors—outside incomes, demand for labour, workers' relative bargaining strength and category of wage contract—are compared. Basic individual demographic characteristics and some indicators of workers' bargaining power provided most of the explanation for wage changes. Proxy variables for labour demand, while significant and correctly signed, were small in magnitude.