Inflation Stabilization and the Vanishing Size-Wage Effect

Abstract

The author examines wage patterns under an incomes policy in Mexico in 1987–94. The policy specified increases in the minimum wage rate, but also guided salary negotiations more generally. The author finds indications of a substantial but largely temporary effect on wage rates, and evidence consistent with more intensive monitoring of compliance in large firms than in smaller ones. For example, three years after policy implementation, public sector wages had fallen approximately 10% relative to private sector wages, and wages in the largest private firms had fallen 15% relative to those in the smallest private firms. These relative wage effects are consistent with the centralized administration of the policy.