THE EFFECTS OF FISCAL SHOCKS ON EMPLOYMENT AND THE REAL WAGE*

We study the transmission of fiscal shocks in the labor market. We employ a structural VAR and base identification on the restrictions that shocks to government consumption, investment, and employment must raise output and deficits. These restrictions hold in both prototype Real Business Cycle (RBC) and New Keynesian models. Shocks to government consumption and investment increase real wages and employment contemporaneously, both at state level and in the aggregate. The dynamics in response to employment shocks are mixed: Increases in government employment raise the real wage and total employment in the aggregate. However, in one third of the states they reduce total employment.     

AN EMPIRICAL EXAMINATION OF THE SOURCES OF CHANGES OVER TIME IN THE JOB FINDING RATE USING RESERVATION WAGES AND REJECTED WAGE OFFERS*

We consider a structural dynamic job search model where nonstationarity originates from the change over time in the benefit level, the job offer arrival rate, and the wage offer distribution. The model is estimated on the French sample of the ECHP taking advantage of direct observation of reservation wages, rejected job offers, and associated rejected wages. We find that the offered wages deteriorate rapidly (13.8% over six months, 19.2% over one year, and 30% over two years) and that changes in the wage offer distribution are the unique source of negative duration dependence in the hazard.     

DIRECTED SEARCH ON THE JOB AND THE WAGE LADDER*

We model a labor market where employed workers search on the job and firms direct workers' search using wage offers and employment probabilities. Applicants observe all offers and face a trade‐off between wage and employment probability. There is wage dispersion among workers, even though all workers and jobs are homogeneous. Equilibrium wages form a ladder, as workers optimally choose to climb the ladder one rung at a time. This is because low‐wage applicants are relatively more sensitive to employment probability than to wage and thus forgo the opportunity to apply for a high wage, with a lower chance of success.     

THE EFFECTS OF TAXES ON LABOUR IN A DYNAMIC EFFICIENCY WAGE MODEL*

This paper studies the impact of wage and employment taxes in an intertemporal efficiency wage model. Cases with fixed, linear and quadratic adjustment costs associated with job creation are considered. In general, the model shows that an increase in the employment tax leads to an increase in unemployment, reducing job creation, and has ambiguous effect on wages; whereas an increase in the wage tax reduces wages and has ambiguous impact on unemployment and job creation.     

KEYNES ON WAGE FLEXIBILITY AND THE AUSTRALIAN WAGES SYSTEM*

Keynes' General Theory briefly discusses the Australian wages system, as an example of a system in which an attempt was made to fix real wages by law. Keynes argues that such a system, strictly enforced, generates an unstable unemployment equilibrium or highly volatile money wages and prices. This paper clarifies Keynes' views on the Australian system, with a view to their wider relevance for the significance of real and money wage flexibility and inflexibility in Keynes' economics. The most striking finding is that money wage stickiness is a conclusion, not an assumption, of Keynes' theory of employment.     

THE IMPACT OF PERSONALITY TRAITS ON WAGE GROWTH AND THE GENDER WAGE GAP

This paper considers the impact of personality traits on the change of the gender wage gap. Using data from the German Socioeconomic Panel (SOEP), we first explore how personality traits affect wage growth rates. Then, a decomposition analysis is performed to analyse the dynamic effects of personality traits on the change of the gender wage gap over time. Our empirical results indicate that gender differences in conscientiousness and emotional stability lead to a widening of the wage gap over time. By contrast, gender differences in extraversion lead to a narrowing of the wage gap over time.     

中国的最低工资对就业的影响

最低工资制度是政府通过法律手段保障低工资工人的收入、维护劳动者最基本的权益而对劳动力市场进行人为干预的一种政策选择,它对就业的影响引起了人们的广泛争议。本文利用我国2000-2010年30个省市自治区的面板数据,以最低工资制度最为直接的影响人群--其他人员的就业作为研究对象,采用可行的广义最小二乘（FGLS）方法考察了该制度对我国就业的影响。实证研究的结果表明,我国的最低工资水平相对于社会平均工资每提高10%,其他人员的就业在社会总就业中的比重下降约为23%,敏感性分析和动态回归把弹性范围扩大到-009~-029,这与国际上早期的时间序列研究的结论基本一致,这表明我国的最低工资制度对我国其他人员的就业产生了负面影响。     

THE IMPACT OF THE MINIMUM WAGE ON FEMALE EMPLOYMENT IN JAPAN

This article examines the impact of the minimum wage on employment, focusing on women in their 20s and 30s, who are known to be typical low‐wage workers in Japan. The results, based on a panel estimation, suggest that the minimum wage has a measurable impact on employment; the workers whose current wage is below the revised minimum wage are about 20–30 percentage points less likely to be employed in the following year than comparable low‐wage workers who are not affected by the revision of the minimum wage. The estimation results are sensitive to the choice of the control group. (JEL J23, J38, J88)     

IMPACT OF THE MINIMUM WAGE ON THE INCIDENCE OF SECOND JOB HOLDING IN BRITAIN

The advent of any earnings boost, such as provided by the introduction of a minimum wage, might be expected to reduce the supply of low‐paid individuals wanting to hold a second job. This paper uses difference‐in‐differences estimation on a panel of individuals matched across successive Labour Force Surveys around the time of the introduction of the national minimum wage in the United Kingdom in order to estimate the impact of the minimum wage and its subsequent upratings on second job working. There is little evidence to suggest that the extra pay provided by the introduction of the minimum wage was sufficient to affect the incidence of second job holding significantly. However, hours worked in the main job by second job holders may have risen relative to those not covered by the minimum wage; and hours worked in second jobs may have fallen for those whose second job was initially below the minimum.     

A NOTE ON THE NONLINEAR EFFECT OF MINIMUM WAGE INCREASES

We use a labor search model with worker experience to assess the effects of minimum wage increases. Minimum wages can have nonlinear effects on unemployment as higher minimum wages become binding for larger portions of the underlying productivity distribution. The model is used to assess the increases proposed by the Obama Administration from $7.25 an hour to $9.00 and then to $10.10 per hour. We find that minimum wage increases have large effects on youth unemployment. These large effects cast doubt on using past empirical estimates of the effects of minimum wages that do not account for potential nonlinearities. (JEL E24, J08, J24, J64)