Formation des salaires et indexation automatique - Analyse comparative de quatre pays européens

Automatic indexation mechanisms are often criticized for being a key source of inflexibility of actual real wages and thus responsible for a lack of adjustment to in the labour market and for a deterioration of cost-competiveness. The aim of this study is to empirically assess whether this point of view is well founded. Statistical The Statistical and econometric research relates to four countries: two with institutionalized indexation of wages to consumer prices (Luxembourg and Belgium) and two without institutionalized indexation (Germany and France).
this comparative econometric study, applied to four countries with or without indexation mechanisms, shows that the presence of institutionalized indexation does not significantly alter the process through which hourly wages are set, by observingas revealed by the long-term relationships or dynamic reactions to an exogenous shock. In other words, whilst differences in wage flexibility exist, their causes may be found elsewhere and not necessarily in automatic indexation mechanisms. Beyond the perimeter of this study, factors for the adjustment or inflexibility of wages might rather be sought in other directions, such as wages upon recruitment, inter-sector flexibility, the variable portion of remuneration, or changes in the composition of the labour force by sector, for example.