WAGE DISTRIBUTION IN POLAND - THE ROLES OF PRIVATIZATION AND INTERNATIONAL-TRADE, 1992-96

This paper reports an investigation into the changes in the wage distr ibution in Poland in the first half of the 1990s. We concentrate on th e effects of privatization and international trade. We show that the t endency towards increased dispersion in wages halted between 1992 and 1996, despite a rapid expansion in private-sector work. We also show t hat, during the same period, private-sector workers typically earned l ess than their state-sector counterparts on an hourly basis, and this gap widened. However, if one controls for experience, tenure and size of workplace, then there existed a small positive private-sector premi um. On the effects of international trade, we find suggestive circumst antial evidence that the increase in trade with Western Europe raised wages and employment in manufacturing.