Professorial Fellow
1 August 2011–31 July 2012
Office: Pinni B 3094
Tel. +358 (0)40 190 1255
Email: jari.vainiomaki@uta.fi
My regular position in the university is Professor of Economics, especially econometric applications. My research in general is focused on labour market issues. I have previously studied a variety of topics, like collective bargaining over effort and wages, union and product market effects on productivity, wage effects of product market power, inter-industry wage differentials, technology and skill upgrading, the role of employer and employee characteristics for plant productivity, worker turnover and productivity, and wage flexibility/rigidity. The purpose of my research during the Research Collegium fellowship is to study recent developments in the Finnish wage and employment structure in view of the polarization of labour markets observed in many other countries. Polarization refers to the concentration of wage rises and increased employment both in the low and high ends of the skill (wage) distribution, and declines in the middle. Possible explanations for such developments include the joint effect of computerization-induced routinization hypothesis, and outsourcing related to economic globalization.