過去數十年來，美國勞動市場表現與歐洲大陸國家最大的差異便在於其失業率長期以來明顯較低的現象，經濟學者多將此現象歸因於美國的勞動市場較歐洲具有彈性所致。OECD 組織、世界銀行與國際貨幣組織的經濟學家們均曾針對歐洲國家上述現象表達其憂心，並且提出過度限制的勞動市場有礙經濟發展的呼籲。許多歐洲國家實施勞動市場鬆綁措施後確實獲得了某些成效， 如其失業率與長期失業現象均明顯獲得改善。但是，國際勞工組織(ILO)卻也發現，近年來僅有少部分國家的薪資成長迅速，多數國家的薪資僅呈微幅提高的現象。換言之，OECD 國家失業率下降的同時薪資成長也趨於緩慢。這些趨勢使得失業率與薪資的關係由高度負相關且變動劇烈之情況反轉成為穩定低度相關。台灣自2000 年以來除了失業率快速竄升外，政府也曾對勞動市場制度進行相當程度的修改，嘗試彈性化台灣的勞動市場。台灣是否也會步入先進國家的後塵，也成為薪資成長緩慢的經濟體呢？基於上述全球勞動市場以及台灣勞動市場異於以往的發展趨勢，本計劃擬以兩年期間進行勞動市場彈性化工程對薪資與失業率關係之研究。第一年擬針對經濟發展條件較為齊一的OECD 國家進行分析；第二年則擬進行台灣的相關分析，包括跨縣市的分析。研究目標在於嘗試回答1) 彈性化勞動市場是否會造成薪資成長趨於緩慢的結果？以及2) 彈性化勞動市場是否會衝擊薪資與失業率之關係等兩個問題。 The unemployment rate of the United States has long been much lower than its counterparts in many European countries in the past few decades. One main cause behind such differences is the degree of labour market flexibilities of the above countries. Economists in the OECD, World Bank and IMF have recommended European countries to adopt radical reform strategies on their labour markets due to that an over-restricted labour market could plausibly jeopardize a nation’s economic performance. Results of the labour market reformations have shown a substantial reduction in both short-run and long-run rate of unemployment for these European countries. Somewhat surprisingly, when unemployment issues related to labour market reformations were studied, the effect of such reformations on wages are generally left aside in literature. Moreover, the ILO has recently observed a slow growth in wages across most countries in globe. This tendency has led to a change in the relationship between wages and unemployment rate, especially after the year of 2000. In Taiwan, the unemployment rate has risen since the year of 2001; accompanied with the deterioration in wage growth. Incidentally perhaps, many amendments in labour markets were adopted in past decades. It is then wondered if the recent deterioration in wage growth in Taiwan resembles that observed in the OECD countries. This two-year project thus aims to investigate if changes in degree of the labour market flexibilities have altered the relationship between wages and unemployment rate in OECD countries and in Taiwan. In specific, two main sets of questions are asked in this project: 1) would labour market flexibility policies lead to the slowdown in wage growth? and 2) would the relationship between wage and unemployment rate be affected by deregulating labour markets? In the first year, this project studies the above issues by focusing on OECD countries; in the second year, an aggregate and cross-county Taiwanese dataset are used for analysis. 研究期間：10008 ~ 10107
