This paper examines both the determinants and the effects of changes in the rigidity of labor market legislation across countries over time. Recent research identifies the origin of the legal system as being a major determinant of the cross-country variation in the rigidity of employment...

This paper examines both the determinants and the effects of changes in the rigidity of labor market legislation across countries over time. Recent research identifies the origin of the legal system as being a major determinant of the cross-country variation in the rigidity of employment...

We use distributional regression analysis to study the impact of a six percent increase in the Irish minimum wage on the distribution of hourly wages and household income. Wage inequality, measured by the ratio of wages in the 90th and 10th percentiles and the 75th and 25th percentiles,...

Both raw intuition and past experience suggest that the success of an employment guarantee scheme (EGS) in safeguarding the welfare of the poor depends both on the wage it promises, and the ease with which any worker can gain access. An EGS is thus at once a wage guarantee and a rationing...

In signaling games, prejudice occurs if an employer pre-judges some applicants without information and dismisses their signals based on irrelevant characteristics like race. When signaling is inefficient, competition among applicants lowers their signaling incentives and the quality of signals...

This paper examines the relationship between the dispersion of general skills in the working population, and inequality in the distribution of labor income that arises from the market equilibrium from occupational choices. In general, more skilled individuals earn higher labor income in the...

After a period of hyperinflation and the adoption of the Brazilian Real in 1994, Brazil has experienced a significant decline in income inequality along with a rapid recovery of the real minimum wage. There is no empirical consensus on whether the increase in the minimum wage contributed to the...

The distribution of income lies at the intersection of states and markets, both influencing and responding to government policy. Reflecting this reality, increasing research focuses on the political origins of inequality in the U.S. However, the literature largely assumes — rather than tests...

Do corporations increase inequality? Rising inequality of income and wealth has recently been linked to corporate governance, but closer analysis is still developing. This article provides a conceptual grammar to understand the problem. Which ‘significantly distributive rules' affect the...