The Effects of Minimum Wages on Low‐Skilled Immigrants’ Wages,Employment, and Poverty

Raising the minimum wage has been advanced as complementary policy to comprehensive immigration reform to improve low‐skilled immigrants’ economic well‐being. While adverse labor demand effects could undermine this goal, existing studies do not detect evidence of negative employment effects. We re‐investigate this question using data from the 1994 to 2016 Current Population Survey and conclude that minimum wage increases reduced employment of less‐educated Hispanic immigrants, with estimated elasticities of around –0.1. However, we also find that the wage and employment effects of minimum wages on low‐skilled immigrants diminished over the last decade. This finding is consistent with more restrictive state immigration policies and the Great Recession inducing outmigration of low‐skilled immigrants, as well as immigrants moving into the informal sector. Finally, our results show that raising the minimum wage is an ineffective policy tool for reducing poverty among immigrants.     

A Note on the Changes in the Relative Wages of LEP Hispanic Men between 1980 and 2000

Using the Juhn‐Murphy‐Pierce (1993 ) wage decomposition technique, we analyzed changes in the earnings differential between Hispanic and non‐Hispanic white men in the United States between 1980 and 2000. The empirical findings, based on decennial census data, indicate that limited‐English‐proficient (LEP) Hispanic men gained in their relative earnings position compared to English‐fluent Hispanics during the 1990s. Our interpretation is that the relative demand for LEP Hispanic workers has risen in recent years.     

The Heterogeneous Effects of Workforce Diversity on Productivity,Wages, and Profits

We estimate the impact of workforce diversity on productivity, wages, and productivity–wage gaps (i.e., profits) using detailed Belgian linked employer–employee panel data. Findings show that educational (age) diversity is beneficial (harmful) for firm productivity and wages. While gender diversity is found to generate significant gains in high‐tech/knowledge‐intensive sectors, the opposite result is obtained in more traditional industries. Estimates neither vary substantially with firm size nor point to sizeable productivity–wage gaps except for age diversity.     

Cross-Generation Correlations of Union Status for Young People in Britain

This paper investigates whether young people whose fathers are union members are themselves more likely to join a union. We find that young people with unionized fathers are twice as likely to be unionized as those with non‐union fathers; this rises to three times higher for those whose fathers are active in the union. This supports the idea that socialization within the family plays a role in encouraging union membership. It is not the case that the cross‐generation correlations we observe are driven by common within‐family characteristics (like occupation, industry and political persuasion) that are strongly related to union membership.     

The Effects of Minimum Wages on Food Stamp Enrollment and Expenditures

We provide the first causal analysis of how minimum wages affects enrollments and expenditures in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Exploiting state‐ and federal‐level variation in minimum‐wage policy between 1990 and 2012, and incorporating local controls in our specifications, we find that a 10 percent minimum wage increase reduces SNAP enrollment between 2.4 and 3.2 percent, and reduces program expenditures an estimated 1.9 percent. If the federal minimum wage were increased from $7.25 to $10.10, enrollment would fall between 7.5 and 8.7 percent (3.1 to 3.6 million persons) relative to 2012 levels, and annual expenditures would decrease 6 percent ($4.6 billion).     

The Effects of Working Time, Segmentation and Labour Market Mobility on Wages and Pensions in Ireland

Most research on pay and benefit differences between full– and part–time work focuses on characteristics of part–time workers and part–time jobs. However, part–time jobs are more open to labour market 'outsiders', and such labour market mobility can influence wages. We analyse the effects of working time, gender, segmentation and mobility on wages and pension benefits in Ireland. Both segmentation and mobility influence wages directly, and controlling for segmentation in a wage model eliminates the negative effect of part–time working. The wage effects of labour market mobility differ by gender and labour market segment. Pension entitlement is strongly influenced by gender, working time, labour market segment and mobility.     

Deregulation, Business Strategy, and Wages in the Airline Industry

This study assesses empirically the relationship between business strategy and wages within the context of a significant environmental change—deregulation of the airline industry. Regression results provide limited support for the hypotheses that firms' business strategies would lead to systematic differences in average earnings levels of airline carriers, depending on whether or not the industry was regulated, and that these strategies would operate over and above firms' ability to pay higher wages. It appears that business strategies may be linked to their human resource outcomes even in a heavily unionized environment.     

Housing Transactions and the Changing Decisions of Young Households in Britain: The Microeconomic Evidence

In this second of two related papers in this issue, the causes of declining levels of housing transactions in Britain during the 1990s are explored. The lower transaction levels resulted partly from the changing behavior of young individuals. Both household formation and owner–occupation rates of these groups also fell sharply. Using panel data, we investigate the causes of reduced new household formation and owner–occupation, finding that changes in the income distribution away from young cohorts have been an important factor.     

The Impact of Minimum Wages on Unemployment Duration: Estimating the Effects Using the Displaced Worker Survey

This paper examines the impact of minimum wages on unemployment duration. Our estimates suggest that higher minimum wages are associated with shorter unemployment duration for older males and those with at least a high school diploma, but longer unemployment spells for male high school dropouts and females who are older and in lower‐skilled occupations. The results are consistent with other studies in generating concerns about the distributional impact of minimum wages.     

The Impact of Enterprise Size on Employment Tribunal Incidence and Outcomes: Evidence from Britain

Employment Tribunals are the formal means of adjudicating disputes over individual employment rights in the UK. This article hypothesizes that, because small firms favour informality over formality, they are more likely (i) to experience employee claims than large firms; (ii) to be subject to different types of claims; (iii) to settle prior to reaching a formal Tribunal; and (iv) to lose at a Tribunal. Data from the 2003 Survey of Employment Tribunal Applications are used to examine these hypotheses. They are generally supported, although in relation to the third there was no size effect. Furthermore, our results show that firms that have procedures and follow them are more likely to win than those firms that do not have any procedures. Recognizing the benefits of informality, while also ensuring that small firms follow proper standards of procedural fairness, is a policy dilemma that has yet to be resolved.     

Evidence on the Causes of the Rising Dispersion of Relative Wages

In this paper, a neoclassical model of interindustry wage dispersion is derived and used to examine explicitly the fundamental role of microeconomic variables in determining relative wage movements. The empirical results demonstrate that the variance of labor quality and capital intensities across sectors are the primary determinants of the movement of the dispersion of relative wages within the manufacturing sector in the postwar period. Although the relative wage structure exhibits some response to unemployment, it is not sensitive to changes in inflation. The macro variables were also of limited quantitative importance in explaining changes in the relative wage structure.     

The Relative Effects of Unionism on the Earnings Distributions of Women and Men

This study examines the differential effects of union density on the degree of earnings inequality among women and among men. Our results suggest an equalizing impact of union density for all men and for both men and women who work year-round and full time. Union density does not appear to equalize and may even contribute to a disequalization of the earnings distribution for all women.     

On-the-Job Training, Immigration Reform, and the True Wages of Native Male Workers

This study measures the Immigration Reform and Control Act's (IRCA) impact on the "true" earnings of native workers. True earnings include observed wages and compensation received in the form of on-the-job training (OJT). Using 1983–1992 NLSY data, we present evidence suggesting IRCA reduced the true wages of male natives most likely to be mistaken as unauthorized. Our findings suggest that Mexican Americans suffered the largest decline in post-IRCA OJT. It appears then that antidiscrimination policies following recent immigration reform have not fully protected some U.S. natives against unintended IRCA-related employment discrimination.     

Immigration, Race, and Labor: Unionization and Wages in the Canadian Labor Market

In Canada, most racial minorities have lower rates of unionization than do members of the majority workforce. Data from the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics ( N = 32,634) show that racial minority immigrants assimilate into unionization over time. However, unionization reduces net minority wage disadvantages only slightly. Union race relations policies should place more emphasis on collective bargaining as well as on unionization.     

Skilled Immigration,Innovation, and the Wages of Native‐Born Americans

The paper examines the effects of skilled immigration on wages that can be credited to immigrants’ contribution to innovation. Using both individual and state‐level datasets from the United States, we find a significant and positive effect of immigration on wages that is attributable to skilled immigrants’ contribution to innovation. Our results confirm previous findings that immigrants contribute substantially to the host economy's innovation, which is a major driver of technological progress and productivity growth. When we augment the analysis to an immigration–innovation–wages nexus, the results suggest that as the share of skilled immigrants in a particular skill group increases, the wages of both natives and immigrants in that group also get a positive boost. We also identify evidence in favor of a positive spillover effect of skilled immigrants on a state's wage level of all workers, including those who do not directly contribute to innovation.     

中国企业利润侵蚀工资问题研究

20世纪90年代中期以来,中国企业利润侵蚀工资问题日益突出。这种侵蚀引起分配结构显著变化,收入与贡献逆向偏离。不同行业和企业利润对工资的侵蚀程度有差异,批发零售和餐饮住宿业的侵蚀程度最高,其次是工业和建筑业。有些企业在利润侵蚀普通劳动者工资的同时发生高层管理者薪金侵蚀利润的现象。利润侵蚀工资具有多方面的原因,短期内难以完全消除。但是采取有效对策来缩小侵蚀面和降低侵蚀程度是完全可能的。     

中国视阈下的中小企业工资集体协商制度思考

劳资纠纷已经成为影响中国经济社会发展的重要因素,而中小企业则是劳资纠纷发生的重灾区。工资协商制度是避免阶级极化现象造成社会恶果的选择,如何在中国中小企业推行工资协商制度则成为解决中小企业劳资纠纷高发的关键。工资协商制度在中国中小企业推进中存在＂一刀切＂、工会职责缺失、制度缺位、错位等问题,因此,要让工资协商制度在中小企业中顺利、彻底推行,必须让政府、工会从中小企业实际出发,从企业发展与社会、劳工发展的角度对三方恰当定位,实现三方共赢。     

美英日自然垄断型企业改革的共性研究

自然垄断的基本含义是由一家企业垄断经营最有效，这是与自然垄断型企业的成本条件及所面临的需求特征共同决定的，如果在自然垄断领域中存在多个竞争者，形成寡头垄断局面，则有限的需求特征共同决定的，如果在自然垄断领域中存在多个竞争者，形成寡头垄断局面，则有限的需求就要在几个厂商之间进行分割，这时每个厂商的产量必然要小于垄断者的产量，而由于自然垄断成本持续递减特征，竞争厂商的成本必然要高于垄断者的成本，竞争厂商会通过进一步提高价格的方式来弥补成本，获取超额利润，将成本提高的负担转嫁给消费者，因此，自然垄断是由某些特殊领域的规模经济规律与市场有限需求共同决定的，在典型的自然垄断领域中引入竞争从经济角度看并不具有合理性，这时就应该由政府出面对市场进入进行干预，让一家企业独家垄断，赋予特定企业的垄断经营权，但如果同时赋予其收费或价格决定权，就有可能造成价格歧视、寻租等不利于提高资源配置效率、损害消费者利益的现象，所以，自然垄断常常使政府陷入一种社会福利与企业利益取舍的两难困境境，面对这种两难选择，折衷的方式就是允许企业垄断整个自然垄断领域，但要对基治理（Governance)。     

Housing Inventory Change and the Role of Existing Structures, 1961–1985

This paper makes two contributions. First, an internally consistent annual data set is constructed for the housing-units identity. For the 1961–85 period, data are computed for completions, mobile home placements, the change in households, the change in vacancies, and, residually, net other additions (non-new construction additions less losses). Our computed net other additions data for 1974 to 1980 are shown to be comparable to those implicit in the Annual Housing Survey data. Second, evidence is provided that net other additions play a major role in the short-run equilibration of the demand and supply for housing units. Our evidence suggests that, on average, a surge in household formations is half satisfied by reduced losses or non-new construction additions during the concurrent year.