The perspective of modern macroeconomic theory, be it new classical or old and new Keynesian, is that unemployment can be reduced only if real wages are cut. The modern Keynesians, basing themselves upon the microfoundations of efficiency wage theory, argue that real wages cannot and will not be...

I discuss some key issues raised by behavioral economics for better understanding the working of the labor market. Amongst the key points in this paper are: (i) a revised modeling of the labor supply curve, with a specific focus on the target income approach (ii) elaborating on the importance of...

Research in the analytics of efficiency wage and x-efficiency theories is one of the focal points of behavioral economics. A fundamental assumption to these theories is that of effort discretion-that individuals have some control over both the quality and quantity dimensions of the effort they...

According to standard neoclassical theory a higher real wage will result in less employment and a lower rate of employment growth than a lower real wage and thus exogenous interventions in the labor market which increase real wage, such as minimum wage legislation and unionization, are said to...