A Test of Dual Labor Market Theory
A Test of Dual Labor Market Theory
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二元劳动力市场理论的检验
DOI：
10.3386/w1314
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发表时间：
1984
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
K. Lang
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
W. Dickens;W. Dickens;W. Dickens;K. Lang;K. Lang
尽管他们对贫穷的存在的适当政策反应的看法有很大分歧，无论是二元市场理论的支持者还是其批评者，都没有对二元市场假说提出潜在的结论性检验。本文对二元市场理论的两个核心命题进行了检验：1）存在两个具有不同工资制定机制的不同劳动力市场; 2）劳动力市场之间流动的障碍。我们发现这两种假设都有相当大的支持。估计的转换模型的工资决定与未知制度产生两个不同的工资方程。大多数工人与之相关的一个非常类似于标准的人力资本回归，教育和经验有显着的回报。另一个等式是平坦的，没有人力资本的回报。这两个方程分别类似于二元市场理论对“一级”和“二级”市场的预测。此外，我们提出的证据表明，（至少）一些非白人工人被非自愿地限制在二级市场。这种少数族裔工人涌入低工资劳动力市场的现象是白色/非白色工资差异的主要原因。我们解释这些结果作为提供实证支持的双重市场假说和最近的理论工作的效率wagemodels。此外，将效率工资的论点与以下观察相结合，即白色/非白色工资差异的大部分原因是非白人被排除在初级部门之外，这表明对工资差异持续存在的解释。
Despite substantial differences in their views of the appropriate policy response to the existence of poverty, neither the proponents of dual market theory nor its critics have proposed potentially conclusive tests of the dual market hypothesis.This paper presents a test of the two central propositions of dual market theory -- 1) the existence of two distinct labor markets with different wage setting mechanisms and 2) the existence of barriers to mobility between the labor markets. We find considerable support for both hypothesis. Estimation of a switching model of wage determination with unknown regimes yields two distinct wage equations. The one which most workers are associated with closely resembles the standard human capital regression with significant returns to education and experience. The other equation is flat with no returns to human capital. These two equations resemble the predictions of dual market theory for the "primary" and "secondary" markets respectively. Further, we present evidence that(at least) some non-white workers are involuntarily confined to the secondary market. This crowding of minority workers into the low wage labor market accounts for a substantial portion of white/non-white wage differences. We interpret these results as providing empirical support for the dual market hypothesis and for recent theoretical work on efficiency wagemodels. In addition, combining the efficiency wage argument with the observation that much of the white/non-white wage difference is explained by the exclusion of non-whites from the primary sector suggests an explanation for the persistance of wage differences.