The paper provides international evidence for the existence of a negatively sloped locus linking the level of pay to the rate of regional (or industry) unemployment. This 'wage curve' is found using microeconomic data for Britain, the US, Canada, Korea, Austria, Italy, Holland, Switzerland, Norway and Germany. The average unemployment elasticity of pay is approximately -0.1. The paper sets out a multi-region efficiency wage model as one possible interpretation of the data.

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February 1993     Paper Number CEPDP0116