This paper studies how decentralization of wage bargaining from sector to …rm-level in ‡uences wage levels and wage dispersion. We use detailed panel data covering a period of decentralization in the Danish labor market. The decentralization process provides variation in the individual worker's wage-setting system that facilitates identi…cation of the e¤ects of decentralization. We …nd a wage premium associated with …rm-level bargaining relative to sector-level bargaining, and that the return to skills is higher under the more decentralized wage-setting systems. Using quantile regression, we also …nd that wages are more dispersed under …rm-level bargaining compared to more centralized wage-setting systems.

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Unobserved heterogeneity among childbearing women makes it difficult to isolate the causal effects of smoking and prenatal care on birth outcomes (such as birthweight). Whether a mother smokes, for instance, is likely to be correlated with unobserved characteristics of the mother. This article controls for such unobserved heterogeneity by using state-level panel data on maternally linked births. A quantile-estimation approach, motivated by a correlated random-effects model, is used to estimate the effects of smoking and other observables (number of prenatal-care visits, years of education, and so on) on the entire birthweight distribution.

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Primiparous women, 35 years of age or older, do not seem to have a greater risk of OASR than younger primiparous women. Risk factors for OASR are instrumental vaginal delivery and the size of the neonate. Mediolateral episiotomy and epidural analgesia seem to reduce the risk for OASR.