Low-skilled workers do not fare well in today’s skill intensive economy and their opportunitiescontinue to diminish. Given that individuals in this challenging skill segment of the workforceare more likely to have poor experiences in the labor market, and hence incur greater publicexpenses, it...

This paper addresses the applicability of the theory of equalizing differences (Rosen, 1987) ina market in which temporary and permanent workers co-exist. The assumption of perfectcompetition in the labour market is directly questioned and a model is developed in which thelabour market is...

We present evidence about the role of rent sharing in fostering the interdependence of labourmarkets around the world. Our results draw on a firm-level panel of more than 2,000multinationals and more than 5,000 of their affiliates, covering 47 home and host countries.We find considerable...

This paper uses a unique data set containing detailed micro-information on organisations, managers, workers and volunteers belonging to public, private forprofit and private nonprofit institutions delivering social services in Italy. The analysis aims to estimate the determinants of wages across...

Trade unions are consistently found to compress the wage distribution. Moreover, unemployment affects in particular low-skilled workers. The present paper argues that an extended Right-to-Manage model can account for both of these findings. In this model unions compress the wage distribution by...

We present an experimental test of a shirking model where monitoring intensityis endogenous and effort a continuous variable. Wage level, monitoring intensityand consequently the desired enforceable effort level are jointly determined bythe maximization problem of the firm. As a result,...

To explain potential sources of wage rigidity this article analyzes a model of reciprocalkindness applied to a repeated ultimatum game with changing and nonzeroconflict payoffs. The model is also tested in a laboratory experiment. The resultsare compatible with the rentsharingapproach to wage...

We develop a simple labour turnover model of general training. Upon completion of theirtraining, apprentices are equipped with general skills and they accumulate firm-specificskills by continuing working for their training firm. Job turnover is associated with a loss ofaccumulated firm-specific...

The existing literature on training is concerned with understanding the reasons whyfirms pay for the general skills of their workers, but without explaining which firmstrain which workers. This paper develops a theory that both explains the willingnessof firms to pay for general training, and...