Wage Dispersion

Wage Dispersion
Author: Dale Mortensen
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 170
Release: 2003
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780262633192

A theoretical and empirical examination of wage differentials findsthat traditional theories of competition do not explain why workers with identical skills are paid differently.

Optimal Unemployment Insurance

Optimal Unemployment Insurance
Author: Andreas Pollak
Publisher: Mohr Siebeck
Total Pages: 204
Release: 2007
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9783161493041

Designing a good unemployment insurance scheme is a delicate matter. In a system with no or little insurance, households may be subject to a high income risk, whereas excessively generous unemployment insurance systems are known to lead to high unemployment rates and are costly both from a fiscal perspective and for society as a whole. Andreas Pollak investigates what an optimal unemployment insurance system would look like, i.e. a system that constitutes the best possible compromise between income security and incentives to work. Using theoretical economic models and complex numerical simulations, he studies the effects of benefit levels and payment durations on unemployment and welfare. As the models allow for considerable heterogeneity of households, including a history-dependent labor productivity, it is possible to analyze how certain policies affect individuals in a specific age, wealth or skill group. The most important aspect of an unemployment insurance system turns out to be the benefits paid to the long-term unemployed. If this parameter is chosen too high, a large number of households may get caught in a long spell of unemployment with little chance of finding work again. Based on the predictions in these models, the so-called "Hartz IV" labor market reform recently adopted in Germany should have highly favorable effects on the unemployment rates and welfare in the long run.

Job Matching, Wage Dispersion, and Unemployment

Job Matching, Wage Dispersion, and Unemployment
Author: Dale T. Mortensen
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 219
Release: 2011-04-28
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0199233780

A selection of key papers from the winners of the Nobel Memorial Prize 2010. It features their most important work on unemployment, labour market dynamics, and the equilibrium search model.

The Economics of Search

The Economics of Search
Author: Brian McCall
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 574
Release: 2007-12-20
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1134422350

The economics of search is a prominent component of economic theory, and it has a richness and elegance that underpins a host of practical applications. In this book Brian and John McCall present a comprehensive overview of the economic theory of search, from the classical model of job search formulated 40 years ago to the recent developments in equilibrium models of search. The book gives decision-theoretic foundations to seemingly slippery issues in labour market theory, estimation theory and economic dynamics in general, and surveys the entire field of the economics of search, including its history, theory, and econometric applications. Theoretical models of the economics of search are covered as well as estimation methods used in search theory and topics covered include job search, turnover, unemployment, liquidity, house selling, real options and auctions. The mathematical methods used in search theory such as dynamic programming are reviewed as well as structural estimation methods and econometric methods for duration models. The authors also explore the classic sequential search model and its extensions in addition to recent advances in equilibrium search theory.

High Wage Workers and High Wage Firms

High Wage Workers and High Wage Firms
Author: John M. Abowd
Publisher: Université de Montréal, Centre de recherche et développement en économique
Total Pages: 94
Release: 1994
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

We study a longitudinal sample of over one million French workers and over 500,000 employing firms. Real total annual compensation per worker is decomposed into components related to observable characteristics, worker heterogeneity, firm heterogeneity and residual variation. Except for the residual, all components may be correlated in an arbitrary fashion. At the level of the individual, we find that person-effects, especially those not related to observables like education, are the most important source of wage variation in France. Firm-effects, while important, are not as important as person-effects. At the level of firms, we find that enterprises that hire high-wage workers are more productive but not more profitable. They are also more capital and high-skilled employee intensive. Enterprises that pay higher wages, controlling for person-effects, are more productive and more profitable. They are also more capital intensive but are not more high-skilled labor intensive. We also find that person-effects explain 92% of inter-industry wage differentials.

Labor Economics, second edition

Labor Economics, second edition
Author: Pierre Cahuc
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 1081
Release: 2014-08-15
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0262325543

The new edition of a widely used, comprehensive graduate-level text and professional reference covering all aspects of labor economics, with substantial new material. This landmark graduate-level text combines depth and breadth of coverage with recent, cutting-edge work in all the major areas of modern labor economics. Its command of the literature and its coverage of the latest theoretical, methodological, and empirical developments make it also a valuable resource for practicing labor economists. This second edition has been substantially updated and augmented. It incorporates examples drawn from many countries, and it presents empirical methods using contributions that have proved to be milestones in labor economics. The data and codes of these research publications, as well as numerous tables and figures describing the functioning of labor markets, are all available on a dedicated website (www.labor-economics.org), along with slides that can be used as course aids and a discussion forum. This edition devotes more space to the analysis of public policy and the levers available to policy makers, with new chapters on such topics as discrimination, globalization, income redistribution, employment protection, and the minimum wage or labor market programs for the unemployed. Theories are explained on the basis of the simplest possible models, which are in turn related to empirical results. Mathematical appendixes provide a toolkit for understanding the models.

Brookings Papers on Economic Activity: Fall 2011

Brookings Papers on Economic Activity: Fall 2011
Author: Herman Royer Professor of Political Economy David H Romer
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
Total Pages: 425
Release: 2012-05-04
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0815723717

"Brookings Papers on Economic Activity" (BPEA) provides academic and business economists, government officials, and members of the financial and business communities with timely research on current economic issues. Contents include - Recessions and the Costs of Job Loss Steve Davis (University of Chicago) and Til von Wachter (Columbia University) - What Do Small Businesses Do? Erik Hurst and Benjamin Wild Pugsley (University of Chicago) - Unemployment Insurance and Job Search in the Great Recession Jesse Rothstein (University of California-Berkeley) - The Effects of Quantitative Easing on Interest Rates: Channels and Implications for Policy Arvind Krishnamurthy and Annette Vissing-Jorgenson (Northwestern University) - Practical Monetary Policy: Examples from Sweden and the United States Lars E. O. Svensson (Sveriges Riksbank) - The Labor Market in the Great Recession--An Update to September 2011 Michael. W. L. Elsby (University of Edinburgh), Bart Hobijn (Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco), Ay egul ahin (Federal Reserve Bank of New York), and Robert B. Valletta (Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco) - The Income- and Expenditure-Side Estimates of U.S. Output Growth--An Update to 2011Q2 Jeremy J. Nalewaik (Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System)"

Handbook of Labor Economics

Handbook of Labor Economics
Author: Orley Ashenfelter
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 1141
Release: 2010-12-14
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0444534520

A guide to the continually evolving field of labour economics.

Monopsony in Motion

Monopsony in Motion
Author: Alan Manning
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 414
Release: 2013-12-03
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1400850673

What happens if an employer cuts wages by one cent? Much of labor economics is built on the assumption that all the workers will quit immediately. Here, Alan Manning mounts a systematic challenge to the standard model of perfect competition. Monopsony in Motion stands apart by analyzing labor markets from the real-world perspective that employers have significant market (or monopsony) power over their workers. Arguing that this power derives from frictions in the labor market that make it time-consuming and costly for workers to change jobs, Manning re-examines much of labor economics based on this alternative and equally plausible assumption. The book addresses the theoretical implications of monopsony and presents a wealth of empirical evidence. Our understanding of the distribution of wages, unemployment, and human capital can all be improved by recognizing that employers have some monopsony power over their workers. Also considered are policy issues including the minimum wage, equal pay legislation, and caps on working hours. In a monopsonistic labor market, concludes Manning, the "free" market can no longer be sustained as an ideal and labor economists need to be more open-minded in their evaluation of labor market policies. Monopsony in Motion will represent for some a new fundamental text in the advanced study of labor economics, and for others, an invaluable alternative perspective that henceforth must be taken into account in any serious consideration of the subject.