Estimates of Structural Changes in the Wage Equation:Some Evidence for Italy

This paper focuses on the influence of labour market reforms on the wage equation for Italy over the period 1981-2006. Using Gregory and Hansen (1996) residuals based tests for cointegration in model with regime shifts, we try to detect endogenously a possible structural break in the long run relationship between real wage, unemployment rate and labour productivity. Evidence of a structural shift is found and parameter elasticities of the equation before and after the break are estimated.