Iga Magda

Wage differentials across sectors in Europe: an east-west comparison

This study compares the structure and determinants of inter-industry wage differentials in Eastern and Western European countries (namely Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and Spain compared with Latvia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia). To do so, we use a unique harmonised, linked employer-employee data set, the 2002 European Structure of Earnings Survey. Findings show substantial differences in earnings across sectors in all countries, even when controlling for a wide range of employee, job and employer characteristics. The hierarchy of sectors in terms of wages appears to be quite similar in Eastern and Western European countries. Among high-wage sectors, we find the energy (coke, petroleum, gas, electricity and nuclear power), chemical, financial and computer industries. In contrast, it is in the traditional sectors (wood and cork industry, textile, clothing and leather industry, hotels and restaurants, and retailing) that wages are lowest. Further results suggest that the dispersion of inter-industry wage differentials fluctuates considerably across countries. It is relatively small in Norway and Belgium, large in the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Poland and the Czech Republic, and very large in Portugal, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia. Our findings support the hypothesis of a negative relationship between the dispersion of inter-industry wage differentials and a countrys degree of corporatism.

Collective Agreements, Wages, and Firms' Cohorts: Evidence from Central Europe

Using a large, matched employer-employee data set, the authors investigate the impact of company and industry collective bargaining agreements on wages in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland (CE3). They also examine the changing characteristics of the union wage premium in different cohorts of establishments. Their results challenge the common idea of weak unions in the CE3 by revealing a union wage premium whose characteristics depend on the level at which collective bargaining occurs. They find that industry agreements increase wages for low-skilled workers, while company agreements increase medium- and high-skilled wages. Their second finding is that the union wage premium is unevenly distributed between cohorts, with substantial cross-country variation. Wage premiums are concentrated in the transitional cohorts in the Czech Republic and Poland and, to a lesser extent, in the pre-transitional cohort in Hungary.

Changes in the Competitive Position of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland in the EU Market

This paper aims at comparing the uneven process of changes in competitiveness among three accession countries manufacturing industries, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, during the period prior to their EU membership (1996-2003). It demonstrates that the three countries improved competitiveness in the majority of their manufacturing industries. However, these changes were differentiated across time, among industries, in terms of the quality of segments and between the three countries overall. A drop in the productivity gap between the manufacturing industries of the three accession and the incumbent EU countries played the major role in improvement in competitiveness. It determined the drop in relative unit labour costs. The paper shows that changes in competitive advantages of a given countrys industry reflect changes in relative (as compared to foreign) productivity rather than differences in level and changes in productivity among industries of a given country. The dynamics and levels of productivity among the Czech and Polish larger winners were lower than the manufacturing average of both countries. However, since the improvement in productivity in these industries in both countries was larger than in their incumbent EU counterparts, the former pushed the latter out of the EU market. Polands and the Czech Republics export specialisation in less productive industries implies that their export expansion to the EU would result in lower than potential economic growth in both countries. The paper shows that Smiths law of absolute advantages tends to determine changes in market share.

Differentiation of Changes in Competitiveness among Polish Manufacturing Industries

This paper aims to show the uneven process of changes in competitiveness across Polish manufacturing industries during the period prior to Polands EU membership (1996-2003). Based on the Schumpeterian approach to competitiveness, that is the ability to compete, it looks at changes in competitiveness as effects of competition and its factors. Using two types of measure, four clusters of Polish manufacturing industries are selected: double winners, export-led industries, export-oriented industries and losers. The analysis shows that the use of EU market share as a measure of changes in competitiveness fails to reveal differentiation in levels and changes in relative productivity in those industries that increased their EU market share. It also shows that the larger the initial differences in labour productivity across industries, the stronger the process of differentiation of changes in competitiveness. Systemic transition and external liberalisation are conducive to improvement in the competitiveness of highly productive industries, but create a weak stimulus for improvement in the competitiveness of the most backward ones. Secondly, the higher the investment rate and its dynamics, the larger the increase in competitive pressure on the EU market. This conclusion is of great importance for Polish manufacturing, all of the more so given that the potential to reduce employment seems to have been largely exhausted and investment intensity has dropped considerably, especially since 1998.

Job retention among older workers in central and Eastern Europe

ABSTRACT We study job retention rates – the shares of workers who continue to work in the same job over the next five years – in Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. Job retention among older workers is key to prolonging careers and increasing employment of older people which in turn is a crucial challenge for these countries. We find that the retention rates among workers aged 55–59 are low and amount to about a half of the retention rates among prime aged workers. Only in Poland the retention rates of older workers have increased for both men and women between 1998 and 2013. The individuals least likely to retain jobs after the age of 60 were women, those with lower education, working in industry, in medium or low-skilled occupations, and those living with a non-working partner. The policies aimed at encouraging job retention in Central and Eastern Europe should focus on these groups of workers.