This paper reviews several methods to measure wage flexibility, and their suitability for evaluating the extent of such flexibility during times of structural change, when wage distributions and wage curves can be particularly volatile. The paper uses nonparametric estimation to capture possible...

We analyze labor market models where the law of one price does not hold-that is, models with equilibrium wage dispersion. We begin by assuming workers are ex ante heterogeneous, and highlight a flaw with this approach: if search is costly, the market shuts down. We then assume workers are...

Search models with posting and match-specific heterogeneity generate wage dispersion. Given K values for the match-specific variable, it is known that there are K reservation wages that could be posted, but generically never more than two actually are posted in equilibrium. What is unknown is...

Using Chilean data, we document that for resource-rich small open economies the effects of terms of trade shocks on the wage gap (between skilled and unskilled workers) depend on factor intensities in the non-tradable sector, following the model in Galiani, Heymann, and Magud (2010). For a...

Full text also available in Arabic, Chinese, French, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish. Despite signs of recovery and resilience in some economies, global growth continues to disappoint, with the expected pick-up driven primarily by emerging markets. This persistent underperformance has exposed...

The Managing Director's Global Policy Agenda (GPA) presented to the IMFC last month highlights the challenges associated with a rapidly changing and uncertain world. The limited room for policy maneuver and the need to adapt to new realities pose difficult trade-offs between supporting demand...

The thrust of the report's recommendations to strengthen the institutional framework for self-evaluation, adapt it over time to changing circumstances, and better disseminate lessons from self-evaluation are well taken. I believe, however, that there is considerable scope to address these...

This Work Program (WP) translates the policy priorities and strategic directions laid out in the Fall 2016 Global Policy Agenda (GPA) and the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) Communique into an Executive Board agenda for the next six-twelve months. The Managing Director's...

The Managing Director's Global Policy Agenda (GPA) presented to the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) in April called on member countries to reinforce their commitment to strong, sustainable, inclusive, job-rich, and more balanced global growth and to employ a three-pronged...