In the conventional textbook demand-supply model of competitive labour markets, introduction of a minimum wage above the market-clearing level must reduce employment. Empirical findings suggest, however, that this might not always be the case, which appears to be most readily explained by...

Using the 2004 income survey of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office we consider the targeting of two types of unemployment-related benefits: a) unemployment insurance and re-training benefits and b) the unemloyment assistance (UA). The evidence suggests that unemployment-related benefits...

In the conventional textbook demand-supply model of competitive labour markets, introduction of a minimum wage above the market-clearing level must reduce employment. Empirical findings suggest, however, that this might not always be the case, which appears to be most readily explained by...

Using the 2004 income survey of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office we consider the targeting of two types of unemployment-related benefits: a) unemployment insurance and re-training benefits and b) the unemloyment assistance (UA). The evidence suggests that unemployment-related benefits...

We investigate the effect of compulsory military service on wages in Hungary. We use administrative social security data and difference-in-difference strategy to estimate how the conscription in 2003 and 2004 affected the wages of soldiers. Before conscription, the soldiers earned 20 percent...

In this paper, we investigate how much of the wage differences between workers and districts is explained by employee and employer characteristics and by differences in regional characteristics. For this purpose, we use the Ministry of Finance's annual wage survey, which provides detailed data...

By making use of Duncan & Hoffman's empirical model, the economic returns to overeducation and undereducation are estimated using comparable microdata from the middle of the 2000s for 25 European countries. The estimates confirm some of the main results found in the literature. The wage premium...

The paper examines the labour-market position of persons with the higher-education diploma in Hungary. First, using simple labour-market indicators and international-comparison data, we find that persons with the higher-education diploma in Hungary are in a relatively good position in terms of...

Built upon data from 11 subsequent waves of yearly wage surveys carried out by the National Labour Center in Hungary from 1992 to 2003, the paper examines, with the use of elementary statistical tools, whether or not earnings fluctuations differed in size among groups of employees with different...

Since 2006, the law has changed in a way that the expected wage of the employers has to be at least the double of the minimum wage. The employers who pay less than this amount to their employees are more likely to be audited by the tax authority. According to my hypothesis this change has...