This thesis seeks to add to the understanding of wage determination in Canada. Data from the Labour Market Activity Survey and the Survey of Displaced Workers are analysed to indicate the degree to which wages for workers of given observable characteristics vary across industries. Possible explanations for such differentials are considered, with market-clearing models argued to be unconvincing compared to the main alternative, efficiency-wage theory, which allows for a persistent distribution of labour rents across industries. In particular, the key mechanisms in versions of the efficiency-wage hypothesis appealing to workers' concern for fairness are found to be relatively free of persuasive objections, and to be supported by a substantial body of theoretical and empirical work in social psychology and sociology, as well as in economics. The extent to which the observed inter-industry wage differentials can be explained in terms of posited mechanisms for the operation of workers' concern for fairness is then examined. Some indications of the influence of the concern for equity on inter-industry wage differentials are found, although limitations in the data and multicollinearity among regressors restrict the ability to isolate different industry-specific effects. It is concluded that while there is both a theoretical and an empirical basis for the proposition that workers' concern for fairness plays a role in the determination of wages in Canada, more work on this question, ideally combined with the availability of comprehensive firm-level data, is needed to get a more precise idea of the extent of this influence.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.34696 |
| Date | January 1997 |
| Creators | Barnard, G. A. (Geoffrey Alan) |
| Contributors | Soderstrom, L. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Economics.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001617840, proquestno: NQ44357, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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