Aggregate Nominal Wage Adjustments: New Evidence from Administrative Payroll Data
American Economic Review · 2021 · John Grigsby、Erik G. Hurst、Ahu Yildirmaz
中文摘要
我们利用美国最大的工资代发公司的行政工资单数据,测度了美国名义工资刚性的程度。这些数据使我们能够将工人的每期基本合同工资与加班津贴、奖金等其他报酬形式区分开来。我们提供的证据表明,企业利用基本工资对其工人的边际成本进行周期性调整。名义基本工资下降远比以往认为的少见:在任一给定年份,仅有2%的留任工人遭遇名义基本工资削减。约35%的工人逐年基本工资没有变化。我们记录了名义基本工资调整中时间依赖与状态依赖并存的强有力的证据。此外,我们提供证据表明新雇员基本工资的灵活性与在职工人相似。总体而言,我们的结果可用于约束名义工资刚性模型。(JEL E24, E32, J31, J41)
Abstract
Using administrative payroll data from the largest US payroll processing company, we measure the extent of nominal wage rigidity in the United States. The data allow us to define a worker’s per-period base contract wage separately from other forms of compensation such as overtime premiums and bonuses. We provide evidence that firms use base wages to cyclically adjust the marginal cost of their workers. Nominal base wage declines are much rarer than previously thought with only 2 percent of job-stayers receiving a nominal base wage cut during a given year. Approximately 35 percent of workers receive no base wage change year over year. We document strong evidence of both time and state dependence in nominal base wage adjustments. In addition, we provide evidence that the flexibility of new hire base wages is similar to that of existing workers. Collectively, our results can be used to discipline models of nominal wage rigidity. (JEL E24, E32, J31, J41)