Price and Wage Flexibility in Hong Kong SAR

IMF Working Papers, January 20, 2017

Source details

Canonical URL

Price and Wage Flexibility in Hong Kong SAR

Other formats

• Markdown version
• Structured JSON version
• Bundle manifest

Bibliographic details

• Authors: Si Guo
• Published: January 20, 2017
• Series: IMF Working Papers
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781475570397.001

Overview and purpose

• Assesses price and wage flexibility in Hong Kong SAR.
• Compares Hong Kong SAR with the United States, the United Kingdom, and Singapore.
• Analysis conducted at two levels:
  • Aggregate: examines three commonly used macroeconomic relationships among inflation, unemployment, wage growth, and output fluctuations.
  • Industry: compares distributions of labor earnings and price growth in Hong Kong SAR and the United States, and estimates a model of wage formation under downward nominal wage rigidity.

Key findings

• Broad conclusion: price and wage adjustments are more flexible in Hong Kong SAR than in the comparator economies (United States, United Kingdom, Singapore).
• Industry-level evidence: distributional comparison of labor earnings and price growth indicates greater flexibility in Hong Kong SAR relative to the United States.
• Wage formation model: estimation under downward nominal wage rigidity shows Hong Kong SAR exhibits greater wage flexibility than the United States.

Methodology highlights

• Aggregate comparisons based on three common macroeconomic relationships linking:
  • Inflation
  • Unemployment
  • Wage growth
  • Output fluctuations
• Industry analysis compares distributions of labor earnings and price growth.
• Empirical estimation of a wage formation model incorporating downward nominal wage rigidity for cross-country comparison.

Publication and metadata

• Author: Si Guo
• Date: January 20, 2017
• Series: IMF Working Papers
• Working Paper No.: 2017/009
• Issue: 009
• Pages: 19
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781475570397.001
• ISBN: 9781475570397
• ISSN: 1018-5941
• Subjects: Labor, Labor markets, Price adjustments, Prices, Wage adjustments, Wages
• Keywords: Census and Statistics Department of Hong Kong SAR; earnings growth; earnings statistics; equilibrium wage growth in industry; flexibility; flexibility in Hong Kong SAR; Hong Kong SAR; inflation; labor earnings growth; Labor markets; nominal wage; Price adjustments; wage; Wage adjustments; wage growth; wage rigidity; wage system; Wages; WP

IMF Working Paper: "Price and Wage Flexibility in Hong Kong SAR" (Si Guo), IMF Working Papers 2017, 009.

Content in this bundle

• Price and Wage Flexibility in Hong Kong SAR
  • Price and Wage Flexibility in Hong Kong SAR (Markdown version)
  • Price and Wage Flexibility in Hong Kong SAR (PDF)