Wages and Productivity Growth in a Competitive Industry

Abstract

The model studies the evolution of productivity growth in a compehtlve industry. The exogenous wage rate determines the firms' engagement in labor productivity enhancing process innovation. There is a unique steady state of the industry dynamics, which is globaIly stable. In the steady state, the number of active firms, their unit labor cost and supply depend on the growth rate but not on the level of the wage rate. In addition to providing comparative statics of the steady state, the paper characterizes the industry's adjustment path.