Staff Reports
Uncertainty and Labor Contract Durations
June 2000 Number 106
JEL classification: J41, J51, E24

Authors: Robert Rich and Joe Tracy

This paper provides an empirical investigation into the relationship between ex ante U.S. labor contract durations and uncertainty over the period 1970 to 1995. We construct measures of inflation uncertainty as well as aggregate nominal and real uncertainty. The results not only corroborate previous findings of an inverse relationship between contract durations and inflation uncertainty, but also document that this relationship extends to both measures of aggregate uncertainty. We also explore the robustness of this relationship to various measures of inflation uncertainty that have appeared in the literature.

Available only in PDFPDF49 pages / 263 kb

For a published version, see Robert Rich and Joseph Tracy, "Uncertainity and Labor Contract Durations," Review of Economics and Statistics 86, no. 1 (February 2004): 270-87.

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