TY  - JOUR
AU  - Eriksson, Tor
AU  - Westergaard-Nielsen, Niels
TI  - Wage and Labor Mobility in Denmark, 1980-2000
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 13064
PY  - 2007
Y2  - April 2007
DO  - 10.3386/w13064
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13064
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13064.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Tor Eriksson
Aarhus School of Business, Aarhus University
Department of Economics
Silkeborgvej 2, DK-8000 Aarhus C
DENMARK
E-Mail: tor@asb.dk

Niels C. Westergaard-Nielsen
E-Mail: NWN.INT@CBS.DK
M1  - published as Tor Eriksson, Niels Westergaard-Nielsen. "Wage and Labor Mobility in Denmark, 1980-2000 ," in Edward P. Lazear and Kathryn L. Shaw, editors, "The Structure of Wages: An International Comparison" University of Chicago Press (2008)

M3  - presented at "Wage Structure, Raises, and Mobility", January 2, 2007
AB  - This paper consists of three parts. First, we briefly describe some key features of the labor market in Denmark, some of which contribute to the Danish labor markets behaving quite differently from those in many other European countries. The next two parts exploit detailed linked employer-employee data. In the second part we document in some detail an important aspect of the functioning and flexibility of the labor markets in Denmark: the high level of worker mobility. We show that mobility is about as high, or even higher, as in the highly fluid U.S. labor market. Finally, we describe and examine the wage structure between and within firms and changes therein since 1980, especially with an eye on possible impacts of the trend towards a more decentralized wage determination. The shift towards decentralized wage bargaining has coincided with deregulation and increased product market competition. The evidence is, however, not consistent with stronger competition in product markets eroding firm-specific rents. Hence, the prime suspect is the change in wage setting institutions.
ER  -