In some OECD countries the male and female unemployment rates are very similar but in others (notably the Mediterranean countries) the female unemployment rate is much higher than the male. Explaining these cross-country differences is the subject of this article. We show that, in countries...

Recent work on the economic effects of minimum wages has stressed that the standard economic model, where increases in minimum wages depress employment, is not supported by empirical work in some labor markets. The authors present a general theoretical model whereby employers have some degree of...

This article argues that the predictions of standard trade-union models and the tests for distinguishing between these models are not robust to quite small and reasonable changes in the conventional assumptions. In particular, it considers the effect of assuming that the ex post substitutability...

This article derives three dynamic models of worker effort determination based on a shirking efficiency wage model, a compensating differentials model, and a union-firm bargaining model. It shows that all of these three models have the same long-run comparative statics but differ in their...