This article considers the estimation of the structure of wages in union and nonunion sectors. It proposes an estimator that extends standard panel data techniques to the case in which the return to the permanent component of the error term is differently rewarded in the two sectors. The econometric model is used to estimate the effect of unions on both the level and the variance of wages in Canada. The findings indicate that unions increase the average wage of workers and compress the returns to observable measures of skill and to a time‐invariant unobservable measure of skill.

This paper looks at the surprisingly different labor market performance of the United States, Canada, Germany, and several other OECD countries during and after the Great Recession of 2008–9. A first important finding is that the large employment swings in the construction sector linked to the boom and bust in US housing markets is an important factor behind the different labor market performances of the three countries. We also find that cross-country differences among OECD countries are consistent with a conventional Okun relationship linking gross domestic product growth to employment performance.

This paper examines the role of spillover effects of minimum wages and threat effects of unionization in changes in wage inequality in the United States between 1979 and 2017. A distribution regression framework is introduced to estimate both types of spillover effects. Threat effects double the contribution of deunionization to the increase in male wage inequality. Spillover effects magnify the explanatory power of declining minimum wages to two-thirds of the increase in inequality at the bottom end of the female wage distribution.

We are pleased to introduce this volume of papers, all of which were presented at a conference in honor of JohnDiNardo held in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in September 2018. After battling leukemia for close to a decade, John left us on August 26, 2017, at the age of 56. The conference was an opportunity for colleagues, coauthors, students, and friends to celebrate John’s life and academic achievements. The proud son of Italian immigrants, John was born and raised in Allen Park, Michigan. He spent most of his academic career at his alma mater, the University of Michigan, where he earned an undergraduate degree and a masters of public policy. After completing his PhD at Princeton in 1990, John spent a year at the RAND Corporation before joining the faculty at the University of California, Irvine, in 1991. He moved back to Michigan in 2001, where he spent the remainder of his career. At this point, convention calls for a discussion of the main research contributions of the scholar being honored, followed by a summary of the contributed papers. However, following convention is not what best describes John DiNardo’s life and career. Armed with a trademark irreverence, a

Dans cet article, nous cherchons à développer un modèle par lequel le salaire d'un travailleur est fonction de ses qualifications. Le marché ainsi que le travailleur sont au préalable dans l'incertitude quant à certaines de ces qualifications. L'endogénéité à la fois des changements de salaire et des décisions de changements du secteur d'affiliation résulte du processus d'apprentissage relié aux qualifications du travailleur. Nous montrons ensuite comment le modèle peut être estimé par les méthodes des variables instrumentales non-linéaires. Nous appliquons notre méthodologie à l'étude des salaires et de l'allocation des travailleurs aux différentes occupations et industries. Nous trouvons que les secteurs à salaires élevés emploient des travailleurs ayant davantage de qualifications et que ces secteurs rémunèrent ces qualifications à un taux supérieur relativement aux secteurs à faibles salaires. Les estimés des rendements associés aux qualifications qui ne tiennent pas compte du fait que les rendements diffèrent d'un secteur à un autre sont par conséquent erronés. Nous proposons enfin d'autres applications possibles de notre méthodologie.