A Decomposition of the Decline in Japanese Nominal Wages in the 1990s and 2000s

• 발행기관: 서울대학교 경제연구소
• 저자명: Naomi Kodama Tomohiko Inui Hyeog Ug Kwon
• 간행물 정보: 『Seoul Journal of Economics』Seoul Journal of Economics Volume 28 No.1, 53~84쪽, 전체 31쪽
• 주제분류: 경제경영 > 경제학
• 파일형태: PDF
• 발행일자: 2015.03.30

영문 초록

In the 1990s and the 2000s, the average nominal wage in Japan declined continuously. This is a sharp contrast to wage trends in other developed countries in the same period. This study seeks to provide new quantitative evidence on the possible factors contributing to the nominal wage decline in Japan’s so-called “two lost decades” employing the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition method using data from the Basic Survey on Wage Structure for 1993-2008. We find that half of the decline of the average wage in the total economy is due to the growing employment share of low-wage industries. Further, we decompose changes in average wages at the industry level for three subperiods representing different phases of the business cycle in Japan. Controlling for worker characteristics, we find the wages of workers in the manufacturing, wholesale, and medical, health care, and welfare industries declined between 1998 and 2003. Further, our results show that 1997 was the turning point in terms of changes in the wage structure. In addition, we find that wages for workers with the same characteristics continued to decline in the 2000s, albeit at a slower pace, and the main factor responsible for the wage decline was changes in the composition of the workforce in the wholesale, retail, and medical, health care, and welfare industries.

목차

Abstract

Ⅰ. Introduction

Ⅱ. Data and Decomposition Methods

Ⅲ. Decomposition Results

Ⅳ. Conclusion

References

키워드

Nominal wage decline Deflation Changes in industrial structure Blinder-Oaxaca Decomposition