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.
342
questions
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1answer
46 views
What is the maximal theoretically possible wage increase here and now (ceteris paribus)? [closed]
Labour unions are pushing for wage increase but what is maximal theoretically possible wage increase here and now - without restructuring production, processes and without introduction of new ...
6
votes
2answers
117 views
Minimum Wage effects on Adjacent Cities
When a city like Seattle raises the minimum wage to 15/hr, how does it affect the labor market in adjacent cities?
Are there examples, studies or accepted practices to address: Difficulty staffing ...
2
votes
1answer
57 views
Directed search with privately informed buyers and capacities
My question seems to be a basic one and there should be a rather well-known reference in the (IO or labor) search literature.
I will upvote (and comment on) any relevant answer and I will accept an ...
4
votes
1answer
150 views
Endogenous Gentrification and Rates of Return to Education
Gentrification is, roughly speaking, the displacement or exclusion of poor people from areas with improved amenities due to higher rents and costs of living. The question I have is whether better ...
2
votes
1answer
55 views
Why does the Federal Reserve seem to hold so much weight on the unemployment rate, relative to labor participation?
The title is the question.
In the press conference held yesterday, the Chair referenced "unemployment" 18 times, relative to "participation" 3 times. If the labor participation is at the lowest ...
7
votes
1answer
98 views
Testing Roberts's Law: data request on CEO pay and company characteristics
I posted here regarding sources for Roberts's Law.
In this paper it gives a clear qualification of what Roberts's law is. (Page 9, ...Cross-sectional prediction..)
..In a given year, the ...
1
vote
1answer
50 views
Restrictions on goods and capital, but freedom of labour movement
I recently had a discussion with a left-wing friend in the UK about about Brexit, and the possible repercussions of restriction of labour when the UK leaves Europe. He argued that as someone who is ...
0
votes
2answers
872 views
Why are vacancy rate and unemployment rate negatively correlated?
Why is this the case?
Since Vacancy rate is defined as following,
let $A,Q,U$ denote number of vacancies in the economy, labor force, unemployed respectively.
$$\frac{A}{A+Q-U}$$
Here we can see ...
3
votes
0answers
19 views
References for estimating lifetime earnings lost due to caregiving (health economics)
I am working on a project on the productivity costs for caregivers of people with Disease X, a degenerative disease that affects mobility over time. I am looking for references, either scholarly ...
1
vote
2answers
70 views
How to explain these two discrepancies between BLS OES wage data and salaries of pro athletes?
I refer to the Occupational Employment Statistics published by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2015 edition.
Under occupation title "Athletes and Sports Competitors" (27-2021), we have the ...
2
votes
0answers
12 views
Why is three weeks of increasing jobless claims significant?
I see stories like this one on occasion in my news feed.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-27/jobless-claims-in-u-s-decline-for-first-time-in-three-weeks
Mainstream news outlets never ...
3
votes
3answers
5k views
What are the causes of increase in productivity of labour?
This question has a specific context.
While reading Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations, edited, with notes and marginal summary by Edwin Cannan in 1904, one comes across the following lines on the ...
3
votes
1answer
1k views
Sample weights in Stata: fweight vs. pweight
I'm working with IPUMS ACS and Census data in Stata. I'm interested in learning about income distributions and variability for specific subpopulations defined by education level, occupation, race and ...
1
vote
0answers
49 views
Can the Goodwin Model of cyclical labor growth be applied in a micro context to specific industries?
I have been doing a bit of research into the Goodwin Model (1967), which generates cycles of economic activity. I understand that this is mostly used in macroeconomics. However, I am curious if this ...
7
votes
2answers
104 views
How can median wages be significantly different in two neighboring countries with open borders?
As an example, take Germany and Czech Republic. Both are members of the EU and therefore trade barriers between the two countries are minimal. However the median salary in Germany is nearly 3 times as ...
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0answers
33 views
Formal terminology for positive and negative correlation between ability of workers for different jobs?
Say there are two occupations - A and B, and plenty of workers. Let's pick occupation A, and order workers from lowest to highest ability/productivity. Which is the formal term to describe the ...
2
votes
4answers
2k views
How does the professional class fit into Marx and Engel's class struggle theory?
I know that in the first part of The Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engles discuss at length the relationship between the Bourgeois and the Proletarians. The former being the owners of the means of ...
0
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1answer
36 views
Studying growth in US and Sweden, what variables should I watch out for in a regression? [closed]
I've be assigned a project on growth paradigms in US vs Sweden as part of my introductory course in econ. Can somebody please help me out with regression ideas?
9
votes
1answer
585 views
What are the economic perspectives regarding the game of salary negotiations?
Apologies if I use non-economic language to explain what I suspect is a practical application of economics. I have no formal education in economics whatsoever but hoping you guys/girls might be able ...
1
vote
1answer
24 views
What are the different patterns/quantity of employment according to demands of different income ranges?
I don't really have that much knowledge on economics or anything, so perhaps that's something I'd find an answer if I just knew the adequate terminology.
Rephrasing/explaining my question: different ...
1
vote
1answer
34 views
Controling the level of hours worked in the multiplicative formulation of KPR
KPR preferences are generally given by
$$ \frac{c^{1-\sigma}}{1-\sigma} \cdot v(l)$$
with $l$ being leisure. Let's focus on the case where $\sigma \in (0, 1)$, where we know that $v(l)$ must be ...
0
votes
3answers
12k views
Why does the real wage = W/P?
Im reading about labour markets, and the notes mention that the real wage 'w' = W/P, where W = the nominal wage, and P = the price level. Could someone please use some 'W' and 'P' as an example to ...
3
votes
1answer
292 views
Why the difference in productivity and wage trend in the UK economy?
In reading this article from FT, we come across two graphs:
and
Shouldn't real wages have a similar trend to productivity? Why was there that discrepancy since the 2009 until 2014? Maybe some other ...
0
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0answers
120 views
Graphing Volunteer labour Supply
I'm wondering if there is a method by which we can visualize a firms decision to rely on volunteer labour. I have an idea but I'm unsure if it is correct, please tell me if there is an issue with my ...
1
vote
1answer
80 views
Is the study of the volunteer sector inappropriate for a labour economist?
In the basics of labour economics the driving factor for increase in labour supply (for the workers in a given market) is increase in wages.
The volunteer sector consists of general and skilled ...
3
votes
4answers
140 views
Teaching ethics and its Economic value
Is there any literature that considers the benefits of ethical behaviour or teachings in Economics in terms of its value added to human capital?
If there is no difference in value added, then is ...
1
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0answers
54 views
Identify absolute ability from a wage equation
Consider a simple model where the wage of a worker $i$ in period $t$ is:
$$w_{it} = \theta_{t} a_{i}$$
where $\theta_{t}$ is the wage rate or efficiency wage per unit of ability, and $a_{i}$ is the ...
4
votes
1answer
108 views
How does low population growth increase the effect of accumulated wealth
This passage comes from page 10 of the translation of Thomas Piketty's book Capital in the Twenty First Century:
If the rates of population and productivity growth are relatively low,
then ...
6
votes
6answers
449 views
Reconciling low wages with high technology and high education
This is one example of many recent doom storied prognosticating that the "millennial" generation will be the first in (recent) history to experience lower incomes than their predecessors—at least in ...
2
votes
1answer
234 views
Open/modern question in labor economics?
What are some of the modern lines of inquiry in labor economics and what are some good sources of them (especially, succinct ones)?
1
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0answers
22 views
Decentralization of business due to internet/mass communication, or mere bosses-at-a-distance?
Excuse my question if it sounds brutish and uneducated but I'm curious about the recent trend of businesses like Uber, Google Play Store, Apple Store, possibly even Craigslist (et al) which are more ...
5
votes
1answer
120 views
Why is sugar cane still harvested manually in Brazil?
I read that up to 70% of Brazil's sugar cane in the Sao Paulo area is still harvested manually. Some workers are paid $1.50 per tonne. Why is it still being cut manually? Some possibilities:
(1) farm ...
10
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2answers
1k views
Why does immigration boost the economy? (or does it not…?)
I'm a novice at macroeconomics, and trying to understand the effect of immigration (from developing nations) on the economy of a developed nation. Specifically, I am considering the effect when the ...
2
votes
1answer
186 views
Value added by workers
Is there any empirical evidence on the value added by workers?
That is, their "productivity" minus the wage payments, social security benefits etc. that are paid by the firm?
I'm eventually looking ...
3
votes
2answers
170 views
Does the government have a role to play in certifying people's abilities for the labor market?
The nature of information often makes it look like a public good. Is this the case for certification of peoples abilities? Is there a role the government could play in certifying people's abilities? ...
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0answers
1k views
What evidence is there that Adam Smith made mistakes in criticizing Mercantilism and upholding capitalism?
This commentator writes:
On March 9, 1776, "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" (commonly referred to as simply "The Wealth of Nations") was published. Smith, a Scottish ...
6
votes
1answer
276 views
Labour markets and supply-side policies: too much stress put on the WS push factors?
In reading several macro textbooks, it seems that most of the supply-side policies tend to be focused on the labour supply side (wage setting curve), instead on the firm/labour demand side(price ...
2
votes
1answer
131 views
How can we measure the size of the new uber-driver-type economy?
Uber has probably hundreds of thousands of drivers just in the US. There are many other gig economy firms growing quickly, not only lyft, but also Amazon Prime, bite squad, etc. Is there some place in ...
6
votes
0answers
105 views
Why aren't there more super-stars in educational content delivery?
The super-star phenomena seems to happen in any field where the marginal cost of distribution is very low. I think teaching could be that way just as much as acting or playing basketball - at least as ...
2
votes
1answer
151 views
lowering minimum wage by half, effect on population of Puerto Rico
I am reading about a new bill to lower the minimum wage in Puerto Rico from \$7.25 to \$4.25 per hour. This comes at a time, when both the New York and California have chosen to raise their minimum ...
2
votes
1answer
150 views
Term for fraction of economic value earned?
Is there a term for the fraction of economic value earned by a person in their labor that is due to their creation?
For example, a car factory laborer who's work creates:
Economic value created = $...
3
votes
0answers
125 views
Causes of upward trend in median first marriage age in USA?
I found a chart here of median age at first marriage by year from 1890 to 2010. It looks like it dips to a low during the 60s then has an upward trend until 2010.
As an answer, I'm looking for any ...
4
votes
2answers
230 views
Which foreign workers in USA who send remittances to family are getting the best bang for their buck?
There are probably a lot of ways to measure that, but I want to measure it like this: Foreign national workers grouped by country of origin, which group sends the most money per capita in remittances?
...
4
votes
1answer
479 views
How does economic theory handle full automation of production resulting in full unemployment?
As advances in robotics and artificial intelligence continue, one possible outcome is a laborless economy, in which capital (means of production) is the dominant factor in production, by multiple ...
2
votes
0answers
29 views
How to overcome measurement error in variable for immigration year?
I'm using the Current Population Survey and studying immigration. There's a variable: Year of Entry into the United States for the Foreign Born.
The survey is administered to a representative sample ...
1
vote
0answers
925 views
What does the elasticity of substitution between capital and labour mean?
For example, if i have elasticity of substitution equal to 5 and 0.6 what does it imply about the capital to labor ratio? When it is 5 does it imply that it is easier to replace labor with capital. As ...
1
vote
1answer
290 views
Division of labor vs division of work
Some authors makes the difference between these two terms.
Could somebody explain what is the difference between division of labor and division of work?
3
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0answers
43 views
What models exist that explain which people emigrate to another country?
I'm looking for papers about this, or if there's a pretty standard model across many papers, then maybe just a rundown of the model. I'd like to use the model in an econometric analysis.
For example, ...
1
vote
2answers
13k views
Finding labor supply function from equation of labor market [closed]
The supply side of the labour market is given by the following set of
equations:
Utility of worker is given by $$U = L^{\frac{1}{2}}C^{\frac{1}{2}}.$$
Real wage $w = 5$,
T-Max = 40 hours,
Investment ...
13
votes
2answers
1k views
What is the difference between contract theory and mechanism design?
Can someone explain the difference between contract theory and mechanism design?
