Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • 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.
      180
  • 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.
      153