Real unit labour costs in Eurozone countries : drivers and clusters
Ordóñez, Javier 1947- (Universitat Jaume I. Departament d'Economia)
Sala Lorda, Hèctor (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament d'Economia Aplicada)
Silva Becerra, José Ignacio (Universitat de Girona. Departament d'Economia)

Data:	2015
Resum:	We examine the trajectories of the real unit labour costs (RULCs) in a selection of Eurozone economies. Strong asymmetries in the convergence process of the RULCs and its components-real wages, capital intensity, and technology-are uncovered through decomposition and cluster analyses. In the last three decades, the PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain) succeeded in reducing their RULCs by more than their northern partners. With the exception of Ireland, however, technological progress was weak; it was through capital intensification that periphery economies gained efficiency and competitiveness. Cluster heterogeneity, and lack of robustness in cluster composition, is a reflection of the difficulties in achieving real convergence and, by extension, nominal convergence. We conclude by outlining technology as the key convergence factor, and call for a wider strategy in labour market policies, which should be more oriented to promote the sources of productivity growth.
Ajuts:	Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad ECO2014-58991-C3-2-R UJI/P1.1B2014-17 PROMETEOII/2014/053 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad ECO2012-31081
Drets:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Llengua:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Matèria:	Real unit labour costs ; Eurozone ; Real wages ; Capital intensity ; Technology
Publicat a:	IZA journal of European labor studies, Vol. 4, Núm. 15 (2015) , ISSN 2193-9012

DOI: 10.1186/s40174-015-0036-z

19 p, 562.5 KB

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