Could immigration explain wage inequality in a skill-biased technological model?

The aim of this paper is to evaluate how immigration of high-skilled workers affects the technological-knowledge bias and, in turn, the skill premium in the host countries, in particular bearing in mind the recent experience in a number of European countries. We study a skill-biased dynamic general equilibrium R&D growth model in which the standard R&D technology is modified so wage inequality results from the direction of the technological knowledge, which in turn is induced by the price channel. By solving the transitional dynamics numerically, we show that the rise of the skill premium arises from the price-channel effect, complemented with a mechanism that reflects the impact of immigration on R&D. According to our quantitative results, our model is able to account for a significant proportion of the dynamics of the skill premium in the data for a number of European countries, thus, suggesting that differences in labour skills between immigrants and natives are, in practice, an important source of skill premium variation over time.     

Black–white wage differentials: duration and probability unemployment effects in a multiple of sample selection bias model

The extent to which probability and duration of unemployment affect the black–white wage differentials is examined in this paper. The paper simultaneously incorporates in the wage equation the multiple sample selection bias that occurs as a result of individuals’ propensity to be in the labor force, and the firm’s hiring decisions. The results reveal a substantial contribution of the duration of unemployment variable to the black–white wage differential, but a small portion of the differential is explained by the probability of unemployment. The results also indicate a sizeable difference between the contribution of the duration of unemployment variable to the male’s wage differentials (26%) and to the female’s (35%). The study finds that an individual’s labor force decision as well as a firm’s hiring decision are important in the wage determination process and that failure to account for the sample selectivity bias due to these two decisions will result in either underestimating or overestimating the wage differentials between black and white workers. At the macro level, the results seem to suggest that promotion of racial wage equality should be associated with policies that will minimize blacks’ incidence of unemployment and duration of unemployment spells.     

Cyclical growth in a Goodwin–Kalecki–Marx model

This paper presents a disequilibrium macrodynamic model that incorporates certain elements from Goodwin (the dynamics of the rate of employment and income distribution), Kalecki (an investment function independent of savings, and mark-up pricing in oligopolistic goods markets), and Marx (the reserve-army and reserve-army-creation effects). The model has a system of differential equations for the rate of utilization, profit share, and rate of employment. We show that there exist limit cycles that depend on the sizes of the reserve-army effect and reserve-army-creation effect. This implies that there exists a situation in which the economy experiences endogenous and perpetual growth cycles. Moreover, we show that if the stable long-run equilibrium corresponds to the profit-led growth regime, an increase in the bargaining power of workers increases the rate of unemployment; conversely, if the equilibrium corresponds to the wage-led growth-regime, an increase in the bargaining power of workers decreases the rate of unemployment.     

On price taking behavior in a nonrenewable resource cartel–fringe game

We consider a nonrenewable resource game with one cartel and a set of fringe members. We show that (i) the outcomes of the closed-loop and the open-loop nonrenewable resource game with the fringe members as price takers (the cartel–fringe game à la Salant, 1976) coincide and (ii) when the number of fringe firms becomes arbitrarily large, the equilibrium outcome of the closed-loop Nash game does not coincide with the equilibrium outcome of the closed-loop cartel–fringe game. Thus, the outcome of the cartel–fringe open-loop equilibrium can be supported as an outcome of a subgame-perfect equilibrium. However the interpretation of the cartel–fringe model, where from the outset the fringe is assumed to be price taker, as a limit case of an asymmetric oligopoly with the agents playing Nash–Cournot, does not extend to the case where firms can use closed-loop strategies.     

The wage–employment relationship in Modigliani's 1944 article

Modigliani's 1944 “Econometrica” article is considered one of the most important efforts to reconcile Keynes with classical economic thinking through the wage rigidity hypothesis. The paper reconstructs the genesis of Modigliani's article and compares Modigliani's and Patinkin's interpretation of the wage–employment relationship. It also discusses Modigliani's contribution to the neoclassical synthesis, arguing that Modigliani's attention to the monetary origin of and solution to unemployment contrasts with the neoclassical synthesis neglecting of the monetary side of the system and its inclination towards fiscal policy.     

Innovation,imitation and multinationalisation in a North–South model: a theoretical note

We consider a dynamic general equilibrium product variety model of international product cycle with endogenous rate of imitation in the South; and find that a policy of strengthening intellectual property rights (IPR) protection in the South lowers the rate of product innovation, rate of multinationalisation and South–North relative wage if multinationalisation [or, foreign direct investment (FDI)] is the channel of production transfer. These results are significantly different from those obtained in the exogenous imitation model of Lai (J Dev Econ 55(1): 133–153, 1998). So a stronger IPR protection policy adopted by the South may not be interpreted as an incentive to encourage Northern FDI in the South and to raise the rate of innovation in the North.      

Leveraged borrowing and boom–bust cycles

Investment booms and asset “bubbles” are often the consequence of heavily leveraged borrowing and speculations of persistent growth in asset demand. We show theoretically that dynamic interactions between elastic credit supply (due to leveraged borrowing) and persistent credit demand (due to consumption habit) can generate a multiplier–accelerator mechanism that transforms a one-time productivity or financial shock into large and long-lasting boom–bust cycles. The predictions are consistent with the basic features of investment booms and the consequent asset-market crashes led by credit expansions.     

Do production subsidies have a wage incidence in wind power?

Employment in electricity generation from renewable resources has expanded rapidly in the US and in Texas during the last decade. Availability of the Production Tax Credit (PTC) has been an important driver of this growth. Using establishment-level employment and payroll data for Texas at the North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS)-6 level, we analyse the differences in average wages between firms generating electricity from fossil fuels and those generating electricity from wind power. We compare relative average wages before and after the rapid expansion of wind power development that followed the ex ante renewal of the PTC in 2006. Our main finding using both the parametric and nonparametric estimation techniques proposed by Racine and Li (2004), is that average payrolls for wind power generators increased relative to fossil fuel-based electricity generators after 2006.     

The depression of 1920–1921: a credit induced boom and a market based recovery?

This paper examines the American post-WW1 boom and bust. It argues that the Federal Reserve’s monetary easing from 1919 to 1920 created an Austrian Business Cycle (ABC), or an unsustainable credit boom. The collapse of the boom initiated the Depression of 1920–1921. The subsequent laissez faire policy promoted a swift recovery. In particular, the natural recovery began following a severe liquidation of firms, reallocation of resources, and wage cuts stimulated by fiscal and monetary contraction. Contrary to some other accounts, we find that significant recovery began before the Federal Reserve’s 1921–1922 monetary easing affected the economy. We also address other criticisms of the credit-cycle interpretation.     

Has the EMU reduced wage growth and unemployment? Testing a model of trade union behavior

Grüner (2010) argues that the introduction of the European Monetary Union (EMU) led to lower wage growth and lower unemployment in participating countries. According to Grüner, monetary centralization increases the amplitude of national business cycles, which leads to higher unemployment risk. In order to counter-balance this effect, trade unions lower their claims for wage mark-ups, resulting in lower wage growth and lower unemployment. This paper uses macroeconomic data on OECD countries and a difference-in-differences approach to empirically test the implications of this model. Although we come up with some weak evidence for increased business cycle amplitudes within the EMU, we neither find a significant general effect of the EMU on wage growth nor on unemployment.     

Union wage setting and unemployment in the Netherlands (1965–1987)

This paper presents an empirical model of union wage setting and employment. The (Stackelberg) equilibrium unemployment rate is shown to be a function of taxes, the replacement ratio, the gap between consumer and producer prices, productivity effects, and the rate of long-term unemployment. The model is estimated with aggregate data from the private sector in the Netherlands (1965–1987). The results suggest that the equilibrium unemployment rate is pushed upwards by taxes, the replacement ratio and by the gap between consumer and producer prices, and is reduced by productivity effects. Insider-outsider effects appear insignificant.     

Non-linearity in the inflation–growth relationship in developing economies: Evidence from a semiparametric panel model

Using data on developing economies, we estimate a flexible semiparametric panel data model that incorporates potentially nonlinear effects of inflation on economic growth. We find that inflation is associated with significantly lower growth only after it reaches about 12 percent, which is notably lower than the comparable estimate obtained from a threshold model. Our results also suggest that models with restrictive functional form assumptions tend to underestimate marginal effects of inflation on economic growth. We also document significant variation in the effect of inflation on growth across countries and over time.     

Empirical of the Taiwan stock index option price forecasting model – applied artificial neural network

This work presents a novel neural network model for forecasting option prices using past volatilities and other options market factors. Out of different approaches to estimating volatility in the option pricing model, this study uses backpropagation neural network to forecast prices for Taiwanese stock index options. The ability to develop accurate forecasts of grey prediction volatility enables practitioners to establish an appropriate hedging strategy at in-the-money option.     

Institutional quality and skilled–unskilled wage inequality

This paper establishes two-sector general equilibrium models in the presence of unproductive activities to investigate how an improvement of the institutional quality influences the skilled–unskilled wage inequality. We find that an improvement of the institutional quality will affect the interest rate, and then the interest rate combining with the capital intensity will generate an impact on the skilled–unskilled wage inequality. Specifically, both the interest rate and comparisons of the capital–labor relative distributive shares between two sectors play an important role in determining the skilled–unskilled wage gap in an economy featured with unproductive activities. The above results are robust even when we extend the basic theoretical model in several different ways.     

Monopoly pricing when consumers are antagonized by unexpected price increases: a “cover version” of the Heidhues–K?szegi–Rabin model

This paper reformulates and simplifies a recent model by Heidhues and K?szegi (The impact of consumer loss aversion on pricing, Mimeo, 2005), which in turn is based on a behavioral model due to K?szegi and Rabin (Q J Econ 121:1133?C1166, 2006). The model analyzes optimal pricing when consumers are loss averse in the sense that an unexpected price hike lowers their willingness to pay. The main message of the Heidhues?CK?szegi model, namely that this form of consumer loss aversion leads to rigid price responses to cost fluctuations, carries over. I demonstrate the usefulness of this ??cover version?? of the Heidhues?CK?szegi-Rabin model by obtaining new results: (1) loss aversion lowers expected prices; (2) the firm??s incentive to adopt a rigid pricing strategy is stronger when fluctuations are in demand rather than in costs.     

Insider power and wage setting in transition: Evidence from a panel of large Polish firms, 1988–1994

We analyse wage setting behaviour in the period of transition using the `right to manage model'. The results show a significant change in wage bargaining in 1990. However, the insider power, measured by the employees' capacity to capture productivity gains, persists. The sensitivity of wages to productivity changes is much stronger on the upside than on the downside. In SOEs insiders capture important part of labour productivity gains. In firms transformed into Treasury owned joint stock companies insider effect is weaker. In privatised firms, the bargaining power of the employees is too weak to let them push up wages in response to labour productivity growth. These results are robust to the potential selection bias.     

Employer size–wage effects: evidence from matched employer–employee survey data in the UK

This paper employs a random sample of matched employer–employee data from the UK to test seven possible explanations for the positive relationship between employer size and pay. Individual wage equations show a large employer size–wage premium. We then control for a range of establishment-level variables, based on seven hypotheses typically advanced to explain this premium. Each establishment-level factor reduces the wage premium, but a sizeable premium nonetheless remains. In adjudicating on these hypotheses, we find a strong association between the internal labour market and the employer size–wage premium. This finding supports the theory that the employer size–wage effect may be due to the higher costs of turnover or monitoring in larger firms. However, we find contrasting effects for public versus private sector establishments.     

A real target model of wage inflation with variable union power: the UK experience 1962–1984

This paper offers a reassessment of the hypothesis that nominal wage determination involves Union real wage targets whose attainment depends on the bargaining process. The conventional model is augmented by the introduction of employer targets as well as nonlinear specification for relative power. Empirical evidence suggests that our estimates of Union power can partially explain share price fluctuations.