De relatie loonkosten-werkgelegenheid
Abstract
The relation between labour cases and employment - One of the most remarkable features of recent economic history has been the rise in unemployment throughout the industrialised countries. According to many economists, one of the main reasons is that much of the current unemployment is the result of an excessively high level of real labour costs. In the first part of this paper, we give a survey of the empirical researches about labour demand (with special attention to the influence of labour costs) and try to give an explanation for the variety of results. We also have a look at some other factors influencing the demand for labour (skill-level, materials, ...). In the second part, we discuss the results of our own empirical research about Belgium. On the one hand, we made an estimation of a labour demand equation simultaneously with wage, price, consumption price and capital equations (three-stages least squares). The data are annual and the sample period runs from 1971 to 1992. We find a real long term wage elasticity of 0.375. On the other hand, we also made an estimation of nine subsectors of Belgian manufacturing industry (OLS) with quarterly data and compared the results of the elasticity of substitution with other factors, which reproduce the forces on the labour and product market. The main result is a negative correlation between the elasticity of substitution and the concentration on the product market.
How to Cite:
Peersman, G., (1996) “De relatie loonkosten-werkgelegenheid”, Tijdschrift voor Sociale Wetenschappen 41(1), 78–87. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/tvsw.95226
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