Persistent Inequalities

Persistent Inequalities
Author: Howard Botwinick
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2017-11-20
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9004269592

Economists generally assume that wage differentials among similar workers will only endure when competition in the capital and/or labor market is restricted. In contrast, Howard Botwinick uses a classical Marxist analysis of real capitalist competition to show that substantial patterns of wage disparity can persist despite high levels of competition. Indeed, the author provocatively argues that competition and technical change often militate against wage equalization. In addition to providing the basis for a more unified analysis of race and gender inequality within labor markets, Botwinick’s work has important implications for contemporary union strategies. Going against mainstream proponents of labor-management cooperation, the author calls for militant union organization that can once again take wages and working conditions out of capitalist competition. This revised edition was originally published under the same title in 1993 by Princeton University Press.

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.

A Theory of Inter-Industry Wage Differentials (Classic Reprint)

A Theory of Inter-Industry Wage Differentials (Classic Reprint)
Author: Julio Rotemberg
Publisher:
Total Pages: 52
Release: 2015-07-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781330644294

Excerpt from A Theory of Inter-Industry Wage Differentials The purpose of this paper is to present a mode which broadly fits some of the salient features of inter-industry wage differentials. Several recent empirical papers have found wage differences across industries to be large and persistent. They also show high concordance across occupations and countries. High wages appear to be paid in industries that have high capital/labor ratios and are highly profitable. Our model explains these facts on the basis of firm-specific human capital accumulation by individual workers. We focus on the bargaining between experienced workers and the firm over the division of the surplus output an experienced worker produces over that produced by inexperienced workers. We show that this surplus, and therefore equilibrium wages of trained workers, depends on the capital/labor ratio when the technology has putty-clay features. We also show that when there is multilateral bargaining between all firms and experienced workers, wages also depend on the profitability of the firm. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Can Inter-industry Wage Differentials Justify Strategic Trade Policy?

Can Inter-industry Wage Differentials Justify Strategic Trade Policy?
Author: Lawrence F. Katz
Publisher:
Total Pages: 72
Release: 1988
Genre: Commercial policy
ISBN:

This paper examines the relationship between labor market imperfections and trade policies. The available evidence suggests that pervasive industry wage differentials of up to 20 percent remain even after controlling for differences in observed measures of workers' skill and the effects of unions. Theoretical analysis indicates that given non-competitive wage differentials of this magnitude policies directed at encouraging employment in high-wage sectors could significantly enhance allocative efficiency. For the United States and other developed countries, such policies are more likely to involve export promotion than import substitution. Increased international trade flows (at least through 1984) have been associated with increased employment in high-wage U.S. manufacturing industries relative to low-wage U.S. manufacturing industries.

Wage Inequality in Latin America

Wage Inequality in Latin America
Author: Julián Messina
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2017-12-28
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1464810400

What caused the decline in wage inequality of the 2000s in Latin America? Looking to the future, will the current economic slowdown be regressive? Wage Inequality in Latin America: Understanding the Past to Prepare for the Future addresses these two questions by reviewing relevant literature and providing new evidence on what we know from the conceptual, empirical, and policy perspectives. The answer to the fi rst question can be broken down into several parts, although the bottom line is that the changes in wage inequality resulted from a combination of three forces: (a) education expansion and its eff ect on falling returns to skill (the supply-side story); (b) shifts in aggregate domestic demand; and (c) exchange rate appreciation from the commodity boom and the associated shift to the nontradable sector that changed interfi rm wage diff erences. Other forces had a non-negligible but secondary role in some countries, while they were not present in others. These include the rapid increase of the minimum wage and a rapid trend toward formalization of employment, which played a supporting role but only during the boom. Understanding the forces behind recent trends also helps to shed light on the second question. The analysis in this volume suggests that the economic slowdown is putting the brakes on the reduction of inequality in Latin America and will likely continue to do so—but it might not actually reverse the region’s movement toward less wage inequality.

The Impact of International Trade on Wages

The Impact of International Trade on Wages
Author: Robert C. Feenstra
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 420
Release: 2008-04-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0226239640

Since the early 1980s, the U.S. economy has experienced a growing wage differential: high-skilled workers have claimed an increasing share of available income, while low-skilled workers have seen an absolute decline in real wages. How and why this disparity has arisen is a matter of ongoing debate among policymakers and economists. Two competing theories have emerged to explain this phenomenon, one focusing on international trade and labor market globalization as the driving force behind the devaluation of low-skill jobs, and the other focusing on the role of technological change as a catalyst for the escalation of high-skill wages. This collection brings together innovative new ideas and data sources in order to provide more satisfying alternatives to the trade versus technology debate and to assess directly the specific impact of international trade on U.S. wages. This timely volume offers a thorough appraisal of the wage distribution predicament, examining the continued effects of technology and globalization on the labor market.

Wage Differentials: An International Comparison

Wage Differentials: An International Comparison
Author: Toshiaki Tachibanaki
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2016-07-27
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1349262811

Wages are a vital economic variable in their influence on employment and unemployment and as the main source of personal income, affecting both living standards and labour incentives. Wage determination is studied here in an international perspective, using a common theoretical framework and statistical method through the individual country chapters to reveal similarities and differences between Japan, South Korea, the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany and France.

Advances in the Theory and Measurement of Unemployment

Advances in the Theory and Measurement of Unemployment
Author: Yoram Weiss
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 350
Release: 1989-06-18
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1349106887

A collection of papers which analyzes and measures unemployment as a search activity, discusses efficiency wage models and which considers the impact of government and unions on employment and unemployment.

A Theory of Pay

A Theory of Pay
Author: Adrian Wood
Publisher: CUP Archive
Total Pages: 272
Release: 1978-11-02
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

Monographic study proposing an economic theory of wage determination to overcome inequality in wage differentials in inflationary market economies such as the UK - examines how supply and demand, traditional value systems, collective bargaining, etc., affect the labour market (incl. Relativities between manual workers and nonmanual workers, managers and professional workers, etc.), and considers wage policy and full employment implications, and need for workers participation to bring about change. Bibliography pp. 240 to 246 and graphs.