The authors use a dynamic general equilibrium model to obtain quantitative estimates of the welfare cost of nominal wage contracting. They find that the welfare cost of such contracts can vary quite a lot depending on the degree of indexation, the size and persistence of monetary shocks, and the contract length. The size and persistence of technology shocks do not affect the welfare cost significantly. The elasticity of labor supply is important for the welfare cost. If the labor supply elasticity is small, the welfare cost of nominal wage contracts can be substantial.

The cyclical behavior of real wages has evolved from mildly countercyclical during the interwar period to modestly procyclical in the postwar era. This paper presents a general-equilibrium business-cycle model that helps explain the evolution. In the model, changes in the real wage cyclicality arise from interactions between nominal wage and price rigidities and an evolving input-output structure.