BARGAINING STRUCTURE, WAGE DETERMINATION, AND WAGE DISPERSION IN 6 OECD COUNTRIES

The paper examines the role of collective bargaining systems as a dete rminant of the inter-industry wage structure. It compares wage pattern s of six countries: Austria, Canada, Germany, Norway, Sweden, and the U.S. We use comparable wage regressions from micro cross-sections data to calculate inequality in pay across sectors. Our findings suggest t he following: First, high (low) wage sectors in one country tend to be high (low) wage sectors in others, irrespective of die (dis)similarit y in labor market institutions. Second, differences in the amount of p ay inequality are likely to be the result of differences in collective bargaining: more centralized bargaining structures tend to narrow pay differentials across industries.