The Labor Market And Economic Adjustment

This paper examines the role of the labor market in the transmission process of adjustment policies in developing countries. It begins by reviewing the recent evidence regarding the functioning of these markets. It then studies the implications of wage inertia, nominal contracts, labor market segmentation, and impediments to labor mobility for stabilization policies. The effect of labor market reforms on economic flexibility and the channels through which labor market imperfections alter the effects of structural adjustment measures are discussed next. The last part of the paper identifies a variety of issues that may require further investigation, such as the link between changes in relative wages and the distributional effects of adjustment policies.

This paper examines the role of the labor market in the transmission process of adjustment policies in developing countries. It begins by reviewing the recent evidence regarding the functioning of these markets. It then studies the implications of wage inertia, nominal contracts, labor market segmentation, and impediments to labor mobility for stabilization policies. The effect of labor market reforms on economic flexibility and the channels through which labor market imperfections alter the effects of structural adjustment measures are discussed next. The last part of the paper identifies a variety of issues that may require further investigation, such as the link between changes in relative wages and the distributional effects of adjustment policies.

This overview of a symposium on labor markets and adjustment concludes that: (1) real wages are more flexible than generally supposed, (2) labor reallocations across sectors have been more or less in the desired direction, and (3) the role of labor unions, generally supposed to be an impediment to adjustment, is more subtle than generally supposed.

Peter T. Chinloy and Ernst W. Stromsdorfer I. Background to Adjustments in Labor Markets The book examines the process of adjustment in labor markets across countries arising from external shocks and shifts in international competi tiveness. The examination of specific countries and their data permits a comparison of alternative institutions for compensating and redeploying labor. Four countries are involved, whose labor markets are both competi tive and complementary: Canada, Japan, Mexico, and the United States. Both public labor market institutions, such as direct government com~ pensation of displaced workers and the effect of unemployment insurance, and private market arrangements, such as em loyer-employee agreements on layoffs, the work contract, and severance pay, are considered. Compara tive examination across countries of labor market and related insitutions is thus possible. The book has a common theme, namely the adjustment of labor markets to exogenous shocks, particularly those externally induced. The unifying focus in on workers whose specific skills in an industry or firm render them relatively immobile.

This report quantifies labor mobility costs in developing countries and simulates the implied adjustment paths of employment and wages following a change in trade policy. High mobility costs are shown to reduce the potential gains to trade reform.

This book provides a description of a number of institutional features of the U.S. labor market and prompts an analytical debate about the origins of the institutions it describes and their significance for the operation of the U.S. economic system.