دستمزدهای واقعی و تقاضا برای نیروی کار مرد ماهر و غیر ماهر در بخش تولید غنا : 1991-1995

Real wage rates in Ghana have fallen substantially over the last 20 years. In this paper survey data for the years 1991–1995 is used to assess the changes which have occurred in the 1990s. It is shown that the real wage rate for the unskilled has continued to fall. Factor share equations for skilled and unskilled labour are estimated, which show the rise in skilled wages leading to substitution to unskilled labour but no rise in the share of skilled labour in income. The own price elasticities of skilled and unskilled labour are estimated at −0.44 and −0.52, respectively.

The divergence between the performance of the NICs and other developing regions is well known. This differential performance in terms of economic growth has been reflected in their patterns of real wage growth. The comparative study by Horton et al. (1994, p.17) shows that in Korea real wages in 1988 were nearly four times their 1970 level. In contrast, in the Latin American countries in the study, only in Brazil were real wages higher at the end of the 1980s than in 1970. In Chile and Argentina real wages, over a similar period, fell by over 30% while, in the case of Bolivia they more than halved. The data for sub-Saharan Africa is less complete. The Horton et al. (1994) study provides comparative data for Kenya and Ghana. Real private sector wages in Kenya were approximately the same in 1974 and 1988. In Ghana the data cited shows a very large fall between 1974 and 1983 and an even larger increase between 1983 and 1986. Jamal and Weeks (1993) document substantial falls in real wages throughout sub-Saharan Africa, although much of their data refers to minimum wage rates rather than data on wages or earnings. Levy and Newman (1989) show for the Cote d'Ivoire that a measured rise in real wages, while employment fell over the period 1979 to 1984, hides changes in composition such that, for a given skill level, real wages fell. Changes in relative wages between skilled and less skilled workers are also an important feature of the growth of any economy. In developed countries the causes of the rise in the demand for, and the relative wage of, skilled workers has been the subject of much research, Bound and Johnson (1992), Kreuger (1993) and Bell (1996). In reviewing the evidence for relative wages for the NICs Wood (1994, pp. 241–243) argues that a general decline in skilled to unskilled wage differentials, which had occurred in the first decade of their rapid export growth, had ceased or been reversed during at least part of the 1980s. In the case of sub-Saharan Africa very little is known about the changes in relative wages of skilled and unskilled workers. In this paper employee and firm level information from a survey of Ghana's manufacturing sector is used to measure the wages of skilled and unskilled workers, and to examine the consequences for the demand for labour over the period 1991 to 1995 of changes in those wages. The data set has recall data on earnings so it is possible to examine, in more detail than is usually possible for African labour markets, the pattern of real wage changes over time. In Section 2 the evidence for changes in real wages in Ghana since the 1970s is presented. For the period since 1992 it is possible to show that the relative price of skilled labour has been rising. Estimates of factor cost share equations are presented in Section 3 as a means of establishing the extent of substitutability between capital and both skilled, and unskilled, labour. Section 4 concludes the paper.

The experience of workers in Africa has been very different from the experience of those in developed countries, and in some other parts of the developing world. The size of the fall in real wages in Ghana, as in other African countries, over the last twenty years has been very substantial. By the early 1990s real wages in Ghana were half those of the mid 1970s. Over the recent past declines have continued and, within this average decline, those who are lowest paid have experienced the largest falls in real wages. The spread of earnings is widening as the average falls. In this paper the implications for skilled, and unskilled, labour demand have been investigated. Demand functions for skilled and unskilled workers were estimated based on a translog cost function. The own price elasticity for unskilled labour was −0.52 that for skilled labour was −0.44 (allowing for firm fixed effects). While the relative wage of skilled labour has been rising, this has not resulted in a rise in the share of skilled labour in total wages. These results suggest that stylised representations of African labour markets as characterised by fixed real wages in the formal sector and freely fluctuating ones in the informal sector are not a good description of reality.