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Keywords

wage rigidity; wage-setting behavior; survey data

Abstract

We investigate the wage-setting behavior of French companies using an ad-hoc survey specifically conducted for this study. Our main results are the following. i) Wages are changed infrequently. 75% of firms change their wages once a year. Wage changes occur at regular intervals during the year and are concentrated in January and July. ii) We find a lower degree of downward real wage rigidity and nominal wage rigidity in France compared to the European average. iii) About one third of companies have an internal policy to grant wage increases according to inflation. iv) When companies are faced with adverse shocks, the latter are partially transmitted into prices. Companies also adopt cost-cutting strategies. The wage of newly hired employees plays an important role in this adjustment.

Acknowledgments

The views expressed in this paper are solely the responsibility of the authors and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of the Banque de France.

First Page

5

Last Page

23

Page Count

19

Received Date

23 May 2014

Revised Date

20 January 2015

Accept Date

16 February 2015

Online Available Date

26 March 2015

DOI

10.7172/2353-6845.jbfe.2015.1.1

JEL Code

E24; J3

Publisher

University of Warsaw

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