The employer learning model postulates that employers form employees' prior ability distribution from educational credentials and update its distribution by observing workers' performance on the job. This paper estimates the employer learning model for university-graduate white-collar workers...

The fraction of contingent workers among all workers in Japan increased from 17% in 1986 to some 34% in 2008. This paper investigates the reason for this secular trend. Both demand and supply increases of contingent workers relative to regular workers are important, as evidenced by the stable...

The fraction of contingent workers among all workers in Japan increased from 17% in 1986 to some 34% in 2008. This paper investigates the reason for this secular trend. Both demand and supply increases of contingent workers relative to regular workers are important, as evidenced by the stable...

This paper points to several caveats in an estimation of the Mincer wage equation using Japanese data. An estimation of the Mincer wage equation using microdata of the <i>Basic Survey of Wage Structure</i> 2005-2008 reveals following six points as caveats.<ol><li>Wage profile is discontinuous at age 60 because...</li></ol>

Calls for work sharing are always made whenever employment conditions worsen. However, the hurdle for creating employment through work-sharing is very high. The reasons are as follows: (1) wage cuts by mutual agreement based on a relationship of trust between labor and management is necessary...

In this paper, we empirically examine the impact of the large increase in regional minimum wages in Japan following the revision of the Minimum Wage Law in 2007. The estimation results show that while the minimum wage hike increased the lower level wages among teenagers, it also decreased their...

This paper provides econometric evidence on the cohort size effect on promotion and pay using detailed personnel records of all workers who joined two large manufacturers in Japan during the period 1991-2010. We find that entering the labor market when the economy is in a bad year and joining...

This paper provides new evidence on the nature and causes of the gender pay gap using confidential personnel records from a large Japanese chemical manufacturing firm. Controlling only for the human capital variables that are typically included in the standard wage function results in a...

This paper considers whether minimum wage is a well-targeted anti-poverty policy by examining the backgrounds of minimum-wage workers, and whether raising the minimum wage reduces employment for unskilled workers. An examination of micro data from a large-scale government household survey, the...

Wage distribution has been nearly stable in Japan for the last two decades, contrary to findings in the US, Canada, and the UK. The change in wage distribution during this period was almost completely caused by a distributional change in worker attributes. This implies that skill prices were...