Dagmara Nikulin

Gdansk University of Technology

Poland

dnikulin@zie.pg.gda.pl

Relationship between wages, labour productivity

and unemployment rate in new EU member countries

ABSTRACT. The main aim of this article is to find out the extent to which relative labour productivity and relative unemployment rate changes determine relative wage changes. We use average annual macro-data for the period 2002-2013 for Poland and other 5 new EU members: Estonia, Hungary, Slovak, Czech Republic and Slovenia. Using Poland as benchmark, first we examine the correlation between wage, productivity and unemployment rate changes in countries in question. Then, using panel data model we assess the elasticities of the relative wage changes with regard to relative productivity and unemployment changes. We found out that the trajectory of wage, productivity and unemployment rate development in new EU member countries is diversified. We confirmed a strong relationship between wage and productivity ratio changes in Poland related to Czech Republic, Estonia and Hungary. Moreover, an increase of productivity in Poland in comparison to Czech Republic is greater than an increase of wages in Poland in comparison to Czech Republic. The same relation occurs in Slovak and Slovak Republic. At the same time the productivity in Poland in relation to Hungary and Estonia has been growing slower than the wages in Poland in comparison to Hungary and Estonia. The correlations between wage and unemployment rate ratios are of smaller significance.

Received: February, 2015

1st Revision: April, 2015

Accepted: May, 2015

DOI: 10.14254/2071-

8330.2015/8-1/3

JEL Classification: E24, J24, J34

Keywords: real wages, labour productivity, unemployment rate, wage determination, wage-setting mechanism, new EU member countries