Efficiency Wages and the Economic Effects of the Minimum Wage: Evidence from a Low‐Wage Labour Market*

This article exploits a natural experiment provided by the 1999 introduction of the UK National Minimum Wage (NMW) to test for efficiency wage considerations in a low‐wage sector, the UK residential care homes industry. The empirical results provide support to the wage‐supervision trade‐off prediction of the shirking model and suggest that the NMW may have operated as an efficiency wage in the care homes sector, leading to a reduction in supervision costs. These findings can explain earlier evidence suggesting that although the NMW introduction increased wages dramatically in the care homes sector, it generated only moderate negative employment effects.     

Wage Differences By Gender: Evidence From Recently Graduated MBAS

In this paper we use data from the London Business School of measuredifferences in outgoing salaries of male and female graduates with a Master's in Business Administration degree. This is a relatively homogeneous population of individuals with very similar educational backgrounds, limited work histories, and who enter very similar jobs upon completion oftheir degree. Controlling for differences in individual characteristics as reported on application forms, we (r)nd that the starting salaries of women are approximately 8.6 percent less than men in identical occupations.     

最低工资标准提升的收入效应研究

本文采用“中国健康与营养调查”1996～2010年的微观数据以及全国12个省份的最低工资数据,在控制地区差异和时间趋势的基础上,实证分析了最低工资标准上调对我国城镇居民工资收入的期望、整个分布以及低收入群体的异质性影响。研究结果表明：最低工资每提高1%,工资收入平均提高0.6%。最低工资对收入的影响主要集中在低收入人群,而对于高收入群体是否存在溢出效应是不确定的。最低工资对低收入群体中不同年龄和技能水平的劳动力具有异质性影响。最低工资有利于低收入者工资水平的提升,尤其对中老年低技能劳动力发挥了重要保障作用。最后给出相应的政策启示和进一步研究的方向。     

平均工资、缴费下限与养老保险参保

研究目标：研究养老保险参保缴费逆向激励产生的原因、作用机制以及后果。研究方法：通过构建刻画参保者行为的生命周期模型,数值模拟分析平均工资增长对参保者效用的影响;借助自然实验构建固定效应工具变量回归,实证研究平均工资增长对参保行为的影响。研究发现：基于在岗职工平均工资的缴费下限设定,增加了低收入者的实际缴费负担,随着平均工资的提高,在借贷约束的限制下,为保障当期消费,低收入者会退出养老保险制度;平均工资上涨会显著降低参保职工人数,导致缴费遵从度下降。研究创新：通过研究平均工资变化对实际费率负担的影响,揭示低收入者的参保行为。研究价值：为养老保险制度改革,提供理解参保者微观行为的理论框架和实证依据。     

上海市最低工资标准的确定与评价分析

本文通过构建影响上海市最低工资标准的指标体系,利用因子分析方法建立了上海市最低工资标准确定的一般数学模型。利用模型分析了上海市最低工资标准的合理性,并对其完善提出了观点和建议。     

The Living Wage and the Effects of Real Minimum Wages on Part-Time and Teen Employment

In many parts of the country, campaigns are being carried out and laws are being passed whose aim is to establish, among other things, standards for contracting out public services and setting acceptable living wages that will provide employees decent living standards. Living wages have economic consequences on employment of different groups of workers such as part-time, teenagers, and women and detailed data are needed to measure those effects. In the absence of such data and because of the strong link between living and minimum wages, this study tests the potential impact of living wages by using the model of minimum wages. The study documents a negative and significant relationship between real minimum wages and the employment levels of the various groups. The study also recommends better training and education, free competition in the labor market, and fair compensation based on the workers productivity as justifiable means to achieve a sustainable level of living wages without causing an unemployment repercussion.     

低工资标准和工资集体协商机制是根本解决收入分配恶化的无他选择和必经途径(一)

目前中国收入分配不平等问题有十分复杂的原因,温家宝总理在今年的<政府工作报告>中提出了要从三个方面解决收入分配不平等向题,即国民收入分配格局的失衡、垄断性高收入和非法收入.这三个方面是当前中国收入分配不平等的主要方面,解决起来将全方位地触动所有既得利益集团.可想而知.其困难和阻力将是全面的、巨大的,包括理论障碍和现实顾虑.所以,虽然收入分配改革是今年人大的重点内容,但是改革方案却迟迟未能出台.     

The Turnover‐Reducing Effects of the Minimum Wage may Harm the Economy

This article surveys the literature on the effects of the minimum wage and argues that the observed reduction in turnover rates is not necessarily desirable. If a curvilinear relationship exists between firm productivity and turnover, the effects of the minimum wage on reducing turnover may create a distance between the actual turnover rate and the optimal rate. Consequently, even if we accept the proposition that minimum wages have little impact on employment, they may reduce productivity or job growth in sectors not directly affected by the minimum wage.     

The US Wage Phillips Curve across Frequencies and over Time*

Although widely used in many areas of applied sciences, wavelet analysis has not fully entered the economic discipline yet. In this article we apply wavelet analysis to one of the most investigated relationships is in empirical macroeconomics: the relationship between wage inflation and unemployment. Using US postwar data we find a frequency‐dependent relationship of a sort that is consistent with Phillips’ original insights. It also turns out that this relationship is remarkably stable over the 1948–93 period, but not in the aftermath, as a consequence of a process of adaption of the wage formation process to a low inflation environment.     

Bargaining and Wage Rigidity in a Matching Model for the US

This paper uses robust econometric methods to assess previous empirical results for the Mortensen and Pissarides ( 1994 ) matching model. Assuming all wages are negotiated each period is inconsistent with the history dependence in US wages, even allowing for heterogeneous match productivities, time to build vacancies and credible bargaining. Flexible wages for job changers, with rigid wages for job stayers, allows the model to capture this history dependence and is not inconsistent with parameter calibrations in the literature. Such wage rigidity affects only the timing of wage payments over the duration of matches; conclusions about other characteristics are unaffected by it.     

The Significance of the Living Wage for US Workers in the Early Twenty-First Century

This article provides an introduction to the importance of the living wage for low-wage workers in the United States. Described as a wage based on an estimation of the official poverty threshold for a family of four, the living wage, as an alternative to the minimum wage, is based on the notion that people working at full-time jobs, and their families, should not have to live in poverty. After discussing the emergence and growth of living wage campaigns in the United States, this essay discusses the coverage and provisions of living wage statutes, the economic effects of living wage ordinances as well as additional benefits provided to workers and unions from living wage statute implementation. The article concludes that due to the current economic conditions in the United States, the struggle to attain a living wage will become increasingly relevant in the coming years.     

Indexation and Wage Change Settlements: Evidence from Spanish Manufacturing Firms

An endogenous switching model of ex-ante wage changes under indexed and non-indexed settlements is estimated for the Spanish manufacturing sector using collective bargaining firm data for the 1984–1991 period. The likelihood of indexing the settlement is higher for nationwide unions than for other union groups within the works council and increases with the expected level of inflation. For wage change equations, a common structure for indexed and non-indexed settlements is strongly rejected, showing a source of nominal rigidity. For indexed contracts, the expected ex-ante total inflation coverage is nearly complete. It is also shown that workers pay a significant ex-ante change premium (differential) to obtain a cost of living allowance clause. However, the realised contingent compensation exceeds such a premium for all industries. Finally, important spillover efffects in wage setting and the decision to index the settlement have been detected.     

我国总产出的动态特征研究--基于最小拉格朗日乘数单位根检验的实证分析

本文采用最新的结构断点最小拉格朗日乘数单位根检验,对我国1952～2004年间总产出的动态特征进行了研究,结果发现所有总量都是围绕着一个或两个结构断点的分段趋势平稳的。总产出服从分段趋势平稳过程的结论,对宏观经济运行预测、政策主导下的长期经济发展战略和短期经济稳定措施是否有效,以及总产出与其他总量间因果关系的研究具有重要启示。     

效率工资、效率工资增长模型

本文首先介绍了效率工资的经典模型——夏皮罗一斯蒂格里兹模型,探讨了效率工资的形成以及非自愿失业出现的原因,及失业的“威胁”作用。另外,本文在符合效率工资模型的基本假定条件下,融合代理理论和强制性储蓄假说,构建了效率工资增长模型,提出了效率工资增长模型的关键等式,且由等式隐含地决定了效率工资的最优增长率。此外,还分别分析了效率工资的最优增长率与贴现率、厂商生产技术和工人偏好之间的关系。最后,探讨了最优就业路径和调整成本问题等等。     

The policy mix in the US and EMU: Evidence from a SVAR analysis

We use a SVAR approach to the effects of fiscal and monetary policies, as well as their interactions (policy mix) for the US and the Euro Area (EMU). Overall, our results show that these two cases are different from each other. First, while in the case of the US there is evidence of Keynesian monetary policy, the same is not true in the case of the EMU. Second, considering the effects of the global economic and financial crisis, there is evidence of non-Keynesian fiscal policy in the case of the EMU (expansionary fiscal consolidation), while it does not hold in the case of the US. Third, there is evidence supporting the traditional inverse relationship between monetary policy interest rates and inflation in the case of the US, whereas in the case of the EMU there is a price puzzle (frequent in SVAR studies). Fourth, the baseline model seems to be robust in the case of the US, when considering the effects of the economic and financial crisis 2007–2009, while the opposite holds in the case of the EMU. However, in both cases, the policies seem to act as complements. Another similarity appears when analysing the relationship between public spending and taxation, where there is evidence supporting a fiscal retrenchment.     

Minimum wage and restaurant hygiene violations: Evidence from Seattle

We study the association between the minimum wage and food establishment hygiene violations between Seattle (the treated city) and Bellevue (the control city), both cities located in King County and sharing the same health inspection department. An increase in the real minimum wage of $0.25 is associated with an increase of at least 8% in total and less severe (blue) hygiene violation scores for food establishments in Seattle. We find mixed support for the increase in more severe (red) violations. A decline in employment with an increase in minimum wage could be driving the increases in hygiene violations.     

The Wage Penalty for Married Women of Career Interruptions: Evidence from the 1970s and the 1990s

The goal of this paper is to assess how the wage penalty for career interruptions by married women changed between the 1970s and the 1990s. We estimate the wage penalty for career interruptions using the work-history model and PSID data. We use several approaches to control for various forms of endogeneity and selection bias. Our empirical results suggest that (i) the wage penalty for married women's career interruptions increased from 40.4% to 73.7% over the period, (ii) the ratio of the wage penalty for married women to that of married men also increased, from 1.33 to 2.43, (iii) Blinder–Oaxaca decompositions show that changes in education- or occupation-specific wage penalties account for most of the wage penalty increase.