Nominal Wage Indexation, Quasi-Equilibria and Real Wage Dynamics

In contrast to the traditional static approach to indexation, this paper analyses the dynamic consequences for real wages of the mechanism that links nominal wages to inflation. Revisiting a contribution by Dehez and Fitoussi on macroeconomic fluctuations, I analyse a monetary overlapping generations small open economy in which full indexation is interpreted as the occurrence of a dynamic ‘quasiequilibrium’. In the suggested framework, the nominal wage is linked to the inflation rate by a specific indexation formula whose shape relies on unions’ bargaining positions. Assuming a constant peg for the real interest rate and the superneutrality of money, I show that the economy has a unique long-run quasi-equilibrium allocation whose stability depends only on the behaviour of the monetary authority. Moreover, I show how the operating of a ‘wage-spiration effect’ might lead to the persistence of involuntary unemployment.