Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
  • Publication
    The ambiguous effect of minimum wages on workers and total hours
    (University College Dublin. School of Economics, 2007-08) ;
    We model a standard competitive labour market where firms choose combinations of workers and hours per worker to produce output. If one assumes that the scale of production has no impact on hours per worker, then the change in the number of workers and hours per worker resulting from a minimum wage are inversely related. We also demonstrate that total hours worked at the firm may rise if there are small fixed costs to hiring workers.
      182
  • Publication
    Changes in the gender wage gap and the returns to firm specific human capital
    (University College Dublin. School of Economics, 1999-03) ;
    If employers believe females are more likely to separate from a job than males, efficient cost sharing of on-the-job training implies that females will have higher returns to tenure. Becker and Lindsay (1994) argue that this is true empirically. (1994). Updating the analysis we find that that there is no longer a difference in the probability of leaving jobs or in returns to tenure by gender. Differences in contracts to finance on the job training can no longer explain any of the “discrimination” component in the gender wage gap.
      212
  • Publication
    The Formal Sector Wage Premium and Firm Size for Self-employed Workers
    (University College Dublin. School of Economics, 2013-10) ; ; ; ;
    We develop a model where workers may enter self-employment or search for jobs as employees and where there is heterogeneity across workers’ managerial ability. Workers with higher skills will manage larger firms while workers with low managerial ability will run smaller firms and will be in self-employment only when they cannot find a salaried job. For these workers self-employment is a secondary/informal form of employment. The Burdett and Mortensen (1998) equilibrium search model is used for illustration as a special case of our more general framework. Empirical evidence from Mexico is provided and demonstrates that firm size wage effects for employees and selfemployed workers are broadly consistent with the model.
      302
  • Publication
    The formal sector wage premium and firm size for self-employed workers
    (University College Dublin. School of Economics, 2012-03) ; ; ; ;
    We develop a model where workers may enter self-employment or search for jobs as employees and where there is heterogeneity across workers’ managerial ability. Workers with higher skills will manage larger firms while workers with low managerial ability will run smaller firms and will be in self-employment only when they cannot find a salaried job. For these workers self-employment is a secondary/informal form of employment. The Burdett and Mortensen (1998) equilibrium search model is used for illustration as a special case of our more general framework. Empirical evidence from Mexico is provided and demonstrates that firm size wage effects for employees and self-employed workers are broadly consistent with the model.
      184
  • Publication
    Multinational companies, backward linkages and labour demand elasticities
    (University College Dublin; School of Economics, 2006-12) ; ; ;
    This paper investigates the link between nationality of ownership and wage elasticities of labour demand at the level of the plant. In particular, we examine whether labour demand in multinationals becomes less elastic with respect to the wage if the plant has backward linkages with the local economy. Our empirical evidence, based on a rich plant level dataset, shows that the extent of local linkages indeed reduces the wage elasticity of labour demand. This result is economically important and holds for a number of different specifications.
      387
  • Publication
    The minimum wage and hours per worker
    (University College Dublin. School of Economics, 2010-10) ;
    In a competitive model we ease the assumption that efficiency units of labour are the product of hours and workers. We show that a minimum wage may either increase or decrease hours per worker and the change will have the opposite sign to the slope of the equilibrium hours hourly wage locus. Similarly, total hours worked may rise or fall. We illustrate the results throughout with a Cobb-Douglas example.
      154
  • Publication
    An equilibrium search model of the informal sector
    (University College Dublin. School of Economics, 2006-12) ; ;
    We use an equilibrium search framework to model a formal- informal sector labour market where the informal sector arises endogenously. In our model large firms will be in the formal sector and pay a wage premium, while small firms are characterised by low wages and tend to be in the informal sector. Using data from the South African labour force survey we illustrate that the data is consistent with these predictions.
      338