Secular trends in the Japanese labour market during the lost decades: A reply to Andrew Gordon

Blind, Georg and Lottanti von Mandach, Stefania (2017): Secular trends in the Japanese labour market during the lost decades: A reply to Andrew Gordon.

Abstract

In Blind and Lottanti von Mandach (2015) we present evidence that wage gaps between men and women, as well as between regular non-regular employees have seen an evolution toward more equity between 1988 and 2010. A recent article, “New and Enduring Dual Structures of Employment in Japan: The Rise of Non-Regular Labor, 1980s–2010s” (Gordon 2017), attempts to replicate our earlier analysis, but reaches strongly diverging conclusions. We demonstrate that the evidence in Gordon's (2017) does not challenge our earlier findings and provide explanation for the diverging results. As we show, the results of his replication attempt only apply to the fraction of non-regular employees working fulltime, while our analysis applies to the large majority of part-time employees. We add five years of data and show that the trends identified have persisted.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Gender economics; labour force and employment; wage differentials; Japan
• Subjects: J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J16 - Economics of Gender ; Non-labor Discrimination; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J2 - Demand and Supply of Labor > J21 - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J3 - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs > J31 - Wage Level and Structure ; Wage Differentials

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