TY  - JOUR
AU  - Lallemand,Thierry
AU  - Plasman,Robert
AU  - Rycx,Francois
TI  - Wage Structure and Firm Productivity in Belgium
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 12978
PY  - 2007
Y2  - March 2007
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12978
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12978.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Thierry Lallemand
Université Libre de Bruxelles,
Department of Applied Economics,
CP 140 - Av. F.D. Roosevelt, 50
1050 Brussels - Belgium
E-Mail: tlallema@ulb.ac.be

Robert Plasman
Université Libre de Bruxelles,
Department of Applied Economics,
CP 140 - Av. F.D. Roosevelt, 50
1050 Brussels - Belgium
E-Mail: rplasma@ulb.ac.be

Francois Rycx
François Rycx
Thierry Lallemand
Avenue F.D. Roosevelt, 50
DULBEA, Université Libre de Bruxelles, CP 140
B - 1050 Brussels, BELGIUM
Tel: 00 32 2 650 41 10
Fax: 00 32 2 650 38 25
E-Mail: frycx@ulb.ac.be
M3  - presented at "Wage Structure, Raises, and Mobility", January 2, 2007
AB  - The objective of this paper is twofold. First, we analyse the structure of wages within and between Belgian firms. Next, we examine how the productivity of these firms is influenced by their internal wage dispersion. To do so, we use a large matched employer-employee data set (i.e., a combination of the 1995 'Structure of Earnings' and 'Structure of Business' Surveys). On the basis of the methodology developed by Winter-Ebmer and Zweimuller (1999), we find that within-firm wage dispersion has a positive and significant effect on firm productivity. This result is robust to controls for individual and firm characteristics as well as to instrumenting the wage inequality variable. Findings also suggest that the intensity of this effect is stronger within firms with: i) a majority of blue-collar workers, and ii) a high degree of monitoring. These results are more in line with the 'tournament' models than with the 'fairness, morale and cohesiveness' models.
ER  -