The job guarantee is a viable policy option for tackling both unemployment and underemployment. Hyman P. Minsky was one of the seminal writers on this subject. The first part of this working paper provides a survey of Minsky's writings to identify what kind of jobs he had in mind when...

As a bottom-up approach, a Job Guarantee policy can tackle the issue of unemployment on the macroeconomic, socioeconomic, and individual level in a unique way and promote the social inclusion of the unemployed. This paper aims at analysing the potential obstacles - namely inflationary pressure...

An increase in the minimum wage in immigrant destination countries raises the earnings that low-skilled migrants could expect to attain if they were to migrate. While some studies for the US indicate that a higher minimum wage induces immigration, contrasting evidence shows that immigrants are...

Labour market developments in Germany can be separated into two major shocks: German reunification in the early 1990s, and the Hartz reforms in the early 2000s. In this paper it is argued that these two shocks divide the German wage bargaining system into the old labour market system, which is...

The extent of social security contributions paid by both employers and employees in the Czech Republic is considered one of the biggest problems of the Czech economy. At the same time, the minimum wage in the Czech Republic has been repeatedly changed in recent years and even months, and thus...

The potential benefits of higher minimum wages come from the higher wages for affected workers, some of whom are in poor or low-income families. The potential downside is that a higher minimum wage may discourage employers from using the low-wage, low-skill workers that minimum wages are...

Raising the minimum wage in developing countries could increase or decrease poverty, depending on labor market characteristics. Minimum wages target formal sector workers - a minority in most developing countries - many of whom do not live in poor households. Whether raising minimum wages...

Als Resultat einer ausführlichen politischen Debatte im Anschluss an die Bundestagswahl 2013 wurde in Deutschland am 1. Januar 2015 ein neuer Mindestlohn eingeführt. Dieser Artikel analysiert, ob die Bekanntgabe seiner Einführung bereits die Beschäftigungserwartungen von Arbeitgebern im Jahr...

This paper investigates the degree of monopsony power of employers in different industries against the background of a statutory minimum wage introduction in Germany in January 2015. A semi-structural estimation approach is employed based on a dynamic model of monopsonistic competition. The...