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.
308
questions
4
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1answer
107 views
Labour Market: simple macroeconomic modeling
I just started reviewing macroeconomic modeling for an upcoming entry exam, and I'm not sure about my answers in this application:
Suppose that the economy of a country has a representative firm ...
1
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0answers
22 views
Why doesn't the concept of employee engagement work in practice? [closed]
The concept of employee engagement looks like an overwhelming obvious way of improving business performance, yet since the mid-nineties, and after spending billions on engagement improvement systems, ...
0
votes
1answer
177 views
Expectation augmented Phillips Curve
Currently studying Intro to Macroeconomics, and faced Expectations augmented PC. In my textbook it is not clear how expected inflation affects unemployment. My view so far, is that expected inflation ...
0
votes
1answer
25 views
Does a fall in the wage rate always reduce hours worked?
In the Neoclassical Labor-Leisure model, does a fall in the wage rate always reduce hours worked?
Or does it depend on whether the substitution or income effect dominates?
1
vote
1answer
151 views
Profit maximization question
Two firms are in a market together. They produce a product.
Total revenue from sales is $y=K+L$
K is the amount of capital
L is the amount of labor
These two firms each specialized in supplying ...
2
votes
2answers
153 views
How did we arrive to 40 hr work week?
I am interested in a (reasonably) quantified explanation of why the work week in most of the world is 40 hrs and not for example 20? How did we arrive to the number 40.
Another question is, and here ...
6
votes
2answers
155 views
Instrumental Variable Paper for Minimum Wage
I am trying to write a paper dealing with minimum wages and employment. I understand there is simultaneity bias between these two variables so I must come up with an instrument. Does anyone have any ...
1
vote
2answers
36 views
How to set a minimum wage
How does a country set an optimum minimum wage, i have went through loads of website but none of them give me a satisfied answer. For example, median of a country's income, percentage of GDP and such ...
0
votes
1answer
106 views
How is it economically responsible to destroy proprty which has value? [closed]
precursor: bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/1851
How can it be economically responsible to destroy property which has value?
If a property is destroyed (which is the right of the property holder in most ...
-1
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1answer
42 views
Economic impacts of Migration on the Labour Market
Many natives don't prefer foreigners taking their jobs, is it actually a bad thing for the countries economy?
2
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1answer
107 views
Real Business Cycle Theory
Which academic paper does this diagram come from? Need to know for citation purposes. Apparently its King and Rebelo (2005) but doesn't seem to be the case.
0
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1answer
47 views
Incomes of different professions [duplicate]
Doctors average salary is around \$110,000 a year, whereas NBA stars salary may well cross \$5,000,000 a season.
Why do sports players and television stars make more than doctors and politicians?
-1
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1answer
29 views
Productivity issue
Could someone help with the following?
Company produces products of daily demand. It employs workers In number of 12 people (HER) Wages of workers. The costs of hiring and firing are 25 per employee, ...
1
vote
2answers
99 views
Productivity and wages in a task-based model
In a task-based model like the one developed in Acemoglu&Autor 2011 with two types of worker, can the low type have a higher wage with respect to the high type?
More specifically: if the ...
5
votes
1answer
267 views
The Shapiro-Stiglitz model. Why under full employment do unemployed workers find jobs instantly?
Under the Shapiro-Stiglitz model the No-Shirking Condition is:
$$w=\bar{e}+\left( \rho +\frac{\bar{L}}{\bar{L}-NL}b \right)\frac{\bar{e}}{q}$$
Where:
$\bar{e}=$ exerted effort by employees
$\rho=$ ...
3
votes
2answers
1k views
Interest rate Effects on labour supply
I was analysing, free of specificities, the effects of an increase in the real interest rate on labour supply in a two period setting. The obvious effect on leisure is the intertemporal substitution ...
3
votes
2answers
180 views
JK Galbraith Quote: How to interpret?
I came across a very thought-provoking quote by JK Galbraith concerning supply-side economics. The quote is as follows:
The poor don't work because they have too much money. The rich don't
work ...
4
votes
2answers
94 views
A confusion regarding search and matching model in Pissarides's “Equilibrium Unemployment Theory” book
I was studying chapter 1 of the book "Equilibrium Unemployment Theory" and I got confused about the way Pissarides has defined the probability of a firm not finding a worker in a short time interval $...
0
votes
0answers
45 views
How to find right MRP_L in this economic problem?
Economic problem from my textbook (here is my translation from Russian):
There is a firm that is both monopoly and monopsony. It's monopoly on market of its product and it's monopsony on labor market ...
1
vote
1answer
72 views
Would the military be more efficiant if they were unionized?
I hear about the extremely long work hours in the army. I understand it hardens them for readiness for combat situations. With the technology and increase of intelligence need to operate it would a ...
0
votes
1answer
67 views
Would an $8 National Minimum Wage Work in the US?
For those who advocate a \$15 minimum wage, would the benefits espoused also come from an \$8 minimum?
The reason I ask, is that it’s often said that the minimum wage needs to be updated as it was ...
0
votes
1answer
2k views
Why real wage equals marginal product of labor when return to scale is constant?
I can understand that real wage will equal MPL(marginal product of labor) when MPL is diminishing, because firms will employ more labor until MPL falls to real wage.
While, if MPL is constant, ...
-7
votes
2answers
202 views
What is feminist economics?
Feminist economics? What kind of "field" is that?
Just the existence of such a field seems ridiculous to me...
3
votes
2answers
86 views
Are expensive cities economically threatened by an inability to house low-income workers?
Cities like New York, San Francisco, and others enjoy booming local economies that support high-paying jobs in industries like finance and technology. This and other factors have driven the price ...
2
votes
2answers
326 views
What impact would falling oil prices have on the natural rate of unemployment?
My intuition is that as the price level falls, cost of inputs is falling for suppliers and their output increases. More people are then employed to increase production - correct?
2
votes
1answer
132 views
What effect does a wage ratio cap have on the efficency of allocation of labour?
Introduction
Wage ratio caps prevent the wages of all employees from exceeding a maximum of a fixed multiple of the wages of the lowest paid employee in a given institution.
Wage ratio caps can ...
0
votes
1answer
35 views
Where/What should I search to find the big companies annual paid salary information?
I want to know how much salary paid by apple in 2017 to whole employees. Also the details of other payments of the company(How much they paid for raw materials for example). Also like to know these ...
1
vote
1answer
2k views
Marx: Relative and equivalent-form. Difference?
I don't understand the difference between the two. For example:
2 Shoes = 3 wood
Now Marx says that the first is the relative-form and the second is the equivalent-form. So the use-value expressed ...
4
votes
1answer
42 views
General equilibrium effects of affirmative action policies
I am interested in the debate about affirmative action in college admissions and I would be happy to read some theoretical economic investigations of the effects of these policies. I would be glad if ...
4
votes
0answers
57 views
Estimating Job Vacancy rate empirically
I'm currently reading up on matching models in terms of their ability to describe frictional unemployment, they generally follow a cobb-douglas form.
$$M(u,v)=m=\mu u^\alpha v^{1-\alpha}$$
Where $M(...
0
votes
1answer
98 views
Trying to show result of prisoners dilemma simulation through supply/demand graph
I made up this situation where candidate $A$ and $B$ are vying for a job. They can accept wage $x$ or undercut this to agree to work for $x-k$ where $0<k<x$. My point was that eventually they ...
2
votes
1answer
46 views
Modeling job application process in labor market
I need to model the job application process by job seekers. Specifically a job seeker when looking for a job, comes across a job and then decides whether to apply for it or not. I want to model this ...
1
vote
0answers
38 views
Maximum wage laws in mercantilist France
One John K Williams (1986) writes that in mercantilist France,
The government actually imposed maximum wage laws. Any employer who paid wages above a legally defined ceiling was charged with an ...
1
vote
1answer
360 views
Find the optimal labor supply when labor utility is linear
I have been working the afternoon on an intertemporal exercise where I'm blocking on something very basic. Have been looking on previous posts but didn't find a similar question.
We have the utility ...
2
votes
2answers
916 views
How to interpret Employment Elasticity in this text?
In this VoxEU text, «Promising ideas for future research on the employment effects of minimum wages », how do I interpret the elasticity of employment?
I would think of it as percentual change in ...
4
votes
1answer
193 views
Analyzing Farm Bureau's claim that milk prices would double at the retail level if all the illegals were deported
A 2015 article on the Farm Bureau's website states:
Half of all workers on U.S. dairy farms are immigrants, and the damage
from losing those workers would extend far beyond the farms, nearly
...
2
votes
0answers
46 views
How many of the world's workers are producing luxury vs necessary goods?
Has there been any scholarship done on the proportion of producers producing high-end vs low-end goods? This could also be framed as the proportion of economic activity generated by wealth excess of a ...
5
votes
1answer
377 views
Has US real median personal/household income been stagnant since the late 1970's/early 1980's?
This is referring to an earlier question: Why are real median household incomes stagnant?
How do the following graphs actually tell you that US real median personal/household income has been stagnant ...
8
votes
2answers
192 views
Differentiation of the value function in Burdett Mortensen (1998)
I'm currently making my way through Burdett and Mortensen's classic paper of on the job search. What should be an easy task of finding an expression for the reservation wage is made slightly more ...
5
votes
4answers
4k views
Labour Saving vs. Labour Augmenting - what is the difference?
It seems reasonable to say that technology generally increases output per unit of labour. Therefore in any factory which has installed new technology one can reasonably expect that for the same ...
2
votes
1answer
54 views
Structural Modelling of Expectations/Beliefs
I'm trying to build a structural model explaining the job search process by the job-seeker. One of the crucial component of job search, that i want to model, is the expectation about the employer. So ...
2
votes
1answer
147 views
What economic factors should be considered in attracting suitable staff and determining pay for temporary project work?
Getting qualified workforce for temporary projects can be difficult. If found from within the organisation, they may have to abstain from their regular work, and this may create additional ...
1
vote
1answer
37 views
How is it traditionally defined the minimum wage legislation in economics?
How is it traditionally defined the minimum wage legislation in economics? And which countries does not have a minimum wage legislation as defined in these terms?
3
votes
1answer
309 views
Slutsky Decomposition of Given Labor Supply Model
Let utility curve an individual given as $U(C,R) = C^aR^{1-a}$ where $(0\lt a \lt 1)$ and $C$ denotes consumption commodity and $R$ denotes its leisure, and price of $C$ is given as $P$, and the ...
1
vote
1answer
43 views
“Normal” vs “actual” variables in empirical work
In an early OECD study by Deppler and Ripley (1978), the authors distinguish between output per man hour, $OMH$, and what they call "Normal" output per man-hour, $NOMH$.
(table 2, p152)
At no point ...
1
vote
2answers
47 views
Effects of Robotics on the overall marginal propensity to consume
Basically we know that poor and middle class workers have a high marginal propensity to consume as compared to rich people. Assuming that all of their jobs will be done by robots, and only a few ...
1
vote
1answer
77 views
Theoretical/Empirical Arguments for Migrant Workers in the US
Consider the events that are developing in the US with regards to labor-intensive manual work and migrant workers. If more and more migrant workers are banished from the work pool, it remains a highly ...
2
votes
1answer
45 views
Effects on transit system shutdown based on local workforce end-of-day times?
I'm curious if there are any studies based on logistics and economics of shutting down the bus/transit system before the general population's working class can go home.
For example, the small town I ...
3
votes
1answer
318 views
Exam question implies that a perfect labour market can have wage differentials?
My understanding is that wage differentials should not exist in a perfect labour market for occupations, but the following exam question seems to imply that this can be the case. A brief marking ...
1
vote
2answers
79 views
Literature request: Any articles on the signalling theory / game theory / asymmetric information of the firms' recruiting process?
I'd like to read more about the recruiting process of firms. Signalling theory and game theory can be a useful tool to better understand this phenomena.
For example:
Applicants, who ask for higher ...
