قیمت شرکت ها و تنظیم دستمزد در اروپا: بررسی شواهد در چسبندگی جزیی

This paper presents new evidence on the patterns of price and wage adjustment in European firms and on the extent of nominal rigidities. It uses a unique dataset collected through a firm-level survey conducted in 17 European countries and covering various sectors. Several conclusions are drawn from this evidence. Firms adjust wages less frequently than prices, on average every 15 and 10 months, respectively. Price and, especially, wage adjustment exhibit a substantial degree of time-dependence. In particular, wage changes tend to cluster at a specific time of the year, mostly January in the majority of countries. The results of a multivariate analysis indicate that prices are more flexible when competitive pressures in product markets are strong and when labor costs account for a lower fraction of firms' total costs, whereas wages are more flexible when bargaining is decentralized and when the coverage of collective bargaining and the stringency of employment protection legislation are low. Price rigidities are higher in firms with a larger share of high-skilled/white-collar workers.

A recurrent theme in macroeconomics is whether the adjustment of prices and wages is sufficiently rapid to allow an efficient allocation of resources. In recent decades, a substantial amount of theoretical research devoted to improving the microeconomic foundations of macroeconomic behavior has shown that nominal rigidities are key in determining the effects of different shocks on the economy. This paper focuses on the nature, extent and sources of nominal rigidities in Europe. Based on new firm-level survey data, it addresses the following issues. How often are prices and wages adjusted in European countries? Is the adjustment staggered or synchronized and does it tend to cluster in specific periods? Are there significant differences across firms, sectors and countries in the frequency and timing of wage and price changes? If such differences are indeed present, how do they relate to structural features of product markets, to the institutional setting that governs wage formation and to firm-specific characteristics?

This paper provides new evidence on firms' price and wage adjustment across European firms, with a particular emphasis on the presence, degree and features of nominal rigidities. It focuses on three specific aspects related to this issue: i) the frequency of price and wage changes; ii) the prevailing mechanism of adjustment, its timing and degree of synchronization; iii) the cross-sectional variability of rigidity measures with respect to firm-specific characteristics, product-market features and labor market institutions. The main conclusions are the following.