Questions tagged [labor-economics]
Labor economics is the branch of microeconomics that studies labor markets and its peculiarities. Labor economists usually study topics such as career choice, returns to schooling, determinants of labor productivity, wages, gender and racial gaps.
434
questions
2
votes
0
answers
31
views
Brücker et al. (2014) migrant labour supply shock
Brücker et al. (2014) write down a stylized model of wage-setting with a labour supply shock (migration), which I find hard to follow. Maybe somebody worked on it or is interested..
Labour force is ...
- 1,781
0
votes
0
answers
32
views
Behavioral responses of tax policy on labour supply ( first time doing Difference in Differences)
I am trying to estimate the causal effects of the The Working Income Tax Benefit (WITB) on the labour supply of married women in Canada. The WITB is essentially equivalent to the EITC.
I am looking at ...
1
vote
0
answers
131
views
Derivation of wage rate from nested CES production function
could anyone please help to explain how equation (4) in this paper is derived? I understand that it's an application of first order conditions using the chain rule from equations (1)-(3), but the ...
- 11
1
vote
1
answer
26
views
Is there contradiction between automation created resilience and the full employment (with high wages)?
From the one side - full employment with the high wages (but still under the level of creating inflation threat) is nice thing and politicians and central banks are highly motivated to achieve this.
...
- 425
2
votes
0
answers
38
views
Marginal Cost of Labour Under Monopsony - is the real world like this?
How common is a Perfectly Discriminating Monopsonist in respect to labour rates?
Or anything close to it?
Standard explanations show a normal supply curve for labour, and the marginal cost of that ...
- 143
0
votes
1
answer
34
views
Advice on method for analyzing the effects of increase in minimum wage
As a hobbyist and generally curious person with a lot of free time at home, I was curious what would be a good method to analyze the effect of an increase in the minimum wage of a country if you only ...
- 105
0
votes
1
answer
71
views
What is the term for workers who outputs more than other workers at the same wage thus depressing wage for others? [closed]
What is the specific term for this worker:
A worker who outputs more than other workers at the same wage, therefore now the owner doesn't have to pay workers as much since he gets the same total ...
0
votes
0
answers
98
views
Labor Supply- how to do comparative statics?
Consider an economy with a competitive industry where the representative firm's production function takes the form of a Cobb Douglas production function $Y=z K^{\theta} L^{1-\theta}$.
$z$ is an index ...
- 39
1
vote
0
answers
47
views
Imputing # of unemployed from Labor Force Survey
I am working on state-level data, where one state has recently stopped publishing the absolute figures for the number of the unemployed. Instead, it currently only releases U and LFP rates.
...
- 111
4
votes
1
answer
107
views
Walras Law in a production economy with fixed costs
Consider a price taking firm with fixed costs $fc \geq 0$:
\begin{align*}
\Pi
&=
\max_{n^D} \left\{ P_c F(n^D) - w\times n^D - fc \right\}
\end{align*}
A representative household owns this firm:...
- 340
1
vote
1
answer
215
views
How does demand curve for labor change when there is a proportional payroll tax on employer
In the textbook "Borjas, G.J. Labor economics." (Boston, Mass.; London: Irwin/McGraw-Hill, 2009)
fifth edition [ISBN 9780070172708]. Below is a screenshot of the example of payroll tax of 1 ...
- 13
6
votes
1
answer
93
views
What are the economic drivers of urbanisation?
It is regularly argued that urbanisation drives economic growth (e.g. here).
I wonder which are the drivers that lead to urbanisation in the first place?
I believe the historical case of the ...
- 821
3
votes
1
answer
77
views
Does education have any value for most people's work?
Let me first say that I am not an economist. However, I was having a discussion with one of my friends who claimed that he had absolutely no gain from his education other than it actually being the ...
- 313
0
votes
0
answers
62
views
Differentiated or uniform tax
Suppose Person 1 is working in Denmark and has the utility function,
$$u(c,l)=c-\frac{\eta}{\eta+1}(24-l)^{\frac{\eta+1}{\eta}}$$
His wage after tax is $w(1-t)$, where tax, t, $0<t<1$.
A second ...
- 25
1
vote
1
answer
75
views
Maximized tax revenue & foreign labor
I'm dealing with a tricky assignment, and I have no idea of where to begin.
Person 1 lives in Denmark and has a utility function given by,
$$(1) \ \ u(c,l)=c-\frac{\eta}{\eta+1}(24-l)^{\frac{\eta+1}{\...
- 25
0
votes
1
answer
89
views
EmpirIcal evidence on effects of price floors and ceilings
In introductory microeconomics, when studying partial equilibrium, we are introduced to the idea that a price floor will cause excess supply and a price ceiling will cause excess demand.
How strong is ...
- 1,821
18
votes
3
answers
5k
views
Why do wages not equalize across space?
In standard economic theory wages are simply prices on the labor market determined in equilibrium by the supply and demand of labor. Looking across space within countries it is however standard to ...
- 3,286
0
votes
1
answer
40
views
Why can the job offer have a negative relationship between salary and quantity of work?
Excuse me the following question arose, is it possible that the job offer has a negative relationship between salary and the amount of work?
- 1
2
votes
1
answer
53
views
The current economic understanding of the effect of labour unions on employment and wages
What are the currently largely accepted views on the effect of labour unions on employment and wages? Where can I read more about the currently established theoretical models that model labour unions?
- 1,821
4
votes
1
answer
525
views
Labor market model with subsidies homework
I would appreciate some help with my homework in comparative statics.
L is the demand of labor
F(L) is the production function
$ \frac{\partial F}{\partial L} > 0 > \frac{\partial^2 F}{\partial ...
1
vote
0
answers
17
views
Are there any measures of U-6 Unemployment that take into account ageing out of the work force explicitly?
Labor Force Participation has been steadily decreasing over the last 20 years or so. The Fed says that this has been the case mostly due to the demographic shifts, and to an extent the data backs that ...
- 11
1
vote
1
answer
53
views
Applying modern economics to Edgeworth's Hedonical Calculus
Preface
The late 1800s was a genesis for many economic theories. As math spilled over into the social sciences, one of the more obscure applications of measurement was: Hedonical Calculus, developed ...
- 1,103
-1
votes
1
answer
45
views
Do barriers to entry increase the (collective) market power of incumbent suppliers?
For example in the case of the labour market lower immigration means that low-skilled labour can ask higher wages or better conditions (other things equal). Low skilled labour may have even put the ...
- 821
1
vote
0
answers
26
views
Is this weighted least squares or just weighting the dependent variable
I am a little confused as to what the following line means. Do the authors mean they run a weighted least squares using the sample size as weights, or just weight the dependent variable using the ...
1
vote
1
answer
43
views
Economic impact of employer ignorance to cliff effects?
Let's say an employee, Mike in Indiana, earns \$10.50 an hour. He gets a raise to \$13, but because he is no longer eligible for SNAP (food stamps), his net earnings actually go down. His wage has ...
2
votes
1
answer
59
views
Does labor negatively affect output (from empirical perspective)?
I am estimating Cobb-Douglas production function for US using time series framework:
$$Y_t=A_t \times L_t^\alpha K_t^\beta $$
where $Y$ is output, $A$ is $TFP$, $L$ is labor and $K$ is capital. After ...
- 111
3
votes
1
answer
147
views
Could price floors improve worker safety in the meat cutting industry?
Could price floors improve worker safety in the meat cutting industry?
My question is inspired by the Future Perfect podcast https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/21502225/chicken-meatpacking-plant-...
- 53
1
vote
0
answers
27
views
Estimating $dL/dw$ with direct dependencies using total differential
I have $U(C,L) = U(C) - v(L)$ where $C$ is consumption and $L$ is labor supply. From my first order conditions, $C$ is a function of $w$, wage, and $L$. $L$ is a function of $w$ and $C$. Leisure is $N ...
- 11
6
votes
1
answer
120
views
The decline in the number of domestic servants
does it mean that the market mechanism does not work—that the offer
of the going rate of wages does not secure a servant because servants
do not move to the highest bidder? This complaint—which would
...
- 28.6k
3
votes
3
answers
682
views
Field experiments on labour market discrimination: do sizes of randomly assigned groups matter?
In traditional field experiments on racial discrimination, two identical resumes differing only by name or ID photo are sent to randomly selected firms. A statistical test is then run on the number of ...
- 327
5
votes
5
answers
944
views
What determines whether slavery is economically efficient in industrialized/modern era economies?
Various forms of slavery were nearly universal before the industrial revolution. After industrialization, it would naively seem forced labor would continue to be widespread, as there is no way to ...
- 151
1
vote
1
answer
54
views
The problem of transformation: what is it all about?
I've just learned Marxist concepts that
Value= cost + wages + owner profit
But I do not understand what the transformation problem is and what problems exists because of this. Would someone mind to ...
- 11
0
votes
1
answer
42
views
What is the probability of an unemployed worker receiving no job offer during a time period?
we are currently covering one sided search models and I had a question for you all. I kind of understand the raw calculus behind finding the probability of a job offer over a time interval h, but what ...
- 87
5
votes
1
answer
165
views
Why are Americans at the top of nearly every field?
I live in India, and having spent several years in America before returning, I noticed that Americans dominate in nearly every sphere of human activity. For example, the US seems to be blessed with ...
- 391
2
votes
1
answer
49
views
What is the meaning of "labor input" in the context of incentive theories?
In the article "Multitask Principal-Agent Analyses: Incentive Contracts, Asset Ownership, and Job Design" (Holmström and Milgrom, 1991) it is said that two identical agents ($i=1,2$) devote ...
1
vote
0
answers
15
views
What quasi-experimental/econometric technique can I use to measure the impact of a policy using longtitudinal tax data?
I have two cohorts of workers with very similar characteristics (e.g. same demographic profile, skill level, industry) that were laid off at different points in time. Say one group was laid off ...
- 11
1
vote
1
answer
33
views
How can a country develop the skills of its population and have them stay? [closed]
Suppose, I am a leader of a country, and a lot of my citizens go to the Gulf states (see 3.1, Page-09) to work as unskilled laborers. I see my population working abroad as laborers as a prestige ...
- 145
2
votes
1
answer
77
views
Piketty's explanation of elasticity of substitution (from his book Capital in the 21st century)
I have some trouble following the explanation of the elasticity of substitution between capital and labor and its implications on p189.
Take this part:
The relevant question is whether the elasticity ...
- 173
1
vote
0
answers
48
views
How can I obtain monthly unemployment by ethnicity by state for the US?
Grateful for any help, thoughts and direction.
- 163
0
votes
1
answer
73
views
Economics perspective of connected workers
According to the Deloitte report published here, a connected worker is defined as someone whose working life is changing due to digital and other technologies. This is due to advancement of ...
- 113
1
vote
2
answers
67
views
Dataset on university enrollment?
I'm looking for a dataset with stats on tertiary education enrollment in the US, per state, at least a couple decades back. I've searched but cannot seem to find anything. Could someone help me out?
- 23
3
votes
1
answer
476
views
More than one Bellman Equation
I'm attending to my first dynamic optimization course, and what I don't fully graps yet is that sometimes we have to use more than one bellman equation.
How do you realize that? I mean how do you know ...
- 93
4
votes
2
answers
289
views
Convenient S-shaped production function (i.e. with IRS and DRS) to derive a discontinuous demand for labor
Let say that a firm produces a commodity using only one input (i.e. Labor if we suppose to be in the very short run). Then we have a general production function of the following form $y=f(L)$, for $L≥...
- 165
3
votes
1
answer
696
views
Neutral technical progress
Recently I learnt that Cobb-Douglas production function has elasticity of substitution equal to 1, therefore it has neutral technical progress. Then Leontief production function has zero elasticity of ...
- 31
4
votes
1
answer
50
views
Average ability conditioning on having accepted an offer
There is a continuum of workers between 0 and 1. These have ability $\alpha\sim U[0,2]$. A firm offers them a salary $v$ and has profits
$$
\pi = (\rho \alpha-v) n(v)
$$
where $n(v)$ is the fraction ...
- 648
2
votes
1
answer
50
views
Price Changes in Factor and Product Markets
I think something is wrong in my reasoning, and I can't really find out what it is
Lets say the supply of labor decreases in a market. That would mean that the wage rate would increase in that market....
2
votes
0
answers
37
views
Are there any estimates for what percentage of the jobs lost this spring are "permanent" at least for the rest of the year?
In a "view from the helicopter" video by The Economist on the aftereffects of Covid-19, one of the editors says that it's very unlikely we'll see a return to normal this year e.g. in the restaurant ...
- 3,918
2
votes
2
answers
475
views
Why labor-augmenting technological progress increases employment and wages?
My textbook says that advances in technology typically raise the marginal product of labor and shift the labor demand curve to the right and calls it labor-augmenting technological advances. The book ...
- 21
1
vote
1
answer
44
views
Under what BLS line do "people who want a job but haven’t searched in the last 12 months" show up?
I'm trying to understand how this CNN math was derived:
This category — jobless people who “want a job now” but “did not search for work in the previous year” — has hovered around 3 million workers ...
- 3,918
0
votes
0
answers
25
views
Does the income from a product or art count as passive income?
When a writer publishes his book, can we classify the income from the book as passive? Or another example, when a musician publishes his album, does the album generates passive income, making any form ...
