The wage curve: A panel data view of labour market segments

The paper studies the relationship between the local unemployment rate and wage level – commonly referred to as the wage curve. Using a panel data setup for annual enterprise-level microdata, we confirm previous findings that wages in Slovakia are, on the whole, relatively flexible – with a rise in the local unemployment rate of 1 percentage point being associated with a drop in wages of 0.85%. We find, however, that these elasticities differ considerably across sectors, regions and, in particular, skills. Our results indicate that overall wage flexibility in the Slovak labour market is driven more by the wage flexibility of higher-skilled employees, and their broader opportunities for employment, than by the institutional arrangements of the labour market.