This paper presents an empirical analysis of firm-specific employment and wage outcomes for mechanics in the domestic airline industry. A dynamic contracting model is presented that incorporates both costly employment adjustment and potential gaps between contract wage rates and the opportunity value of workers' time. The model gives a useful description of the employment-output linkage in the data, but is less successful in capturing the dynamic relation between employment, contract wage rates, and wage rates outside the airline industry.

This paper describes the responses of index-linked wage rates to concurrent price increases for a sample of Canadian union contracts and then analyzes theseresponses in terms of a simple model of indexation to the aggregate price level. The model highlights the importance of aggregate price movements in conveying information about industry-specific prices. The empirical analysis confirms that industry-specific correlations between input and output prices and the consumer price index are important determinants of the flexibility of wages to prices across indexed contracts.

Cost of living escalators are an important feature of North American labor contracts. This paper presents a measure of the response of indexlinked wage increases to concurrent price increases for a sample of Canadian contracts, and then analyses this response in terms of a simple model of indexation to the aggregate price level. The model highlights the importance of aggregate price movements in conveying information about industryspecific prices. The empirical analysis confirms that industry-specific correlations between input and output prices and the Consumer Price Index are important determinants of the response of wage to prices across index contracts.

In this paper we compare the implications of a symmetric information contracting model and a dynamic labor supply model for changes in individual earnings and hours over time. The critical distinction between these models is whether earnings represent optimal consumption or payment for current labor services. We develop a simple test between labor supply and contracting models based on the relative variability of earnings and hours with respect to changes in productivity. If earnings represent consumption then changes in productivity generate smaller changes in earnings than hours. The opposite is true in the labor supply model. We apply our test to longitudinal data on male household heads fran the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and the National Longitudinal Survey of Older Men, focusing on individuals who do not change employers during the survey period. Neither model fits the data well. In both surveys, however, the contrihition of changes in productivity to changes in earnings is greater than the contribution to changes in hours. The data are more consistent with a labor supply interpretation, although the estimated labor supply elasticities suggest that changes in hours occur at fixed wage rates.