We analyze the effects of minimum wages in a simple microeconomic model where several principals (potential employers) compete for one or several agents (workers) via their wage offers. A minimum wage changes this game by prohibiting wage offers below the imposed minimum wage, which results in...

This paper analyzes the role of Uruguay's sharp minimum wage increases after 2004 amidst the country's slight wage inequality decrease. We found that the minimum wage increase has contributed to the reduction of wage inequality for formal workers mainly. However, we also found a negative impact...

The public sector hires disproportionately more educated workers. Using US microdata, we show that the education bias also holds within industries and in two thirds of 3-digit occupations. To rationalize this finding, we propose a model of private and public employment based on two features....

The discussion on the causes of the Greek crisis has focused on the twin deficits: the fiscal and current-account deficit. The objective of this paper is to examine how the twin deficits came about implicating structural features of the Greek economy which contributed to the loss in...

Considering the contribution of the distribution of individual wages and earnings to that of household incomes we find two separate literatures that should be brought together, and bring “new institutions” into play. Growing female employment, rising dual-earnership and part-time employment...

This article draws from different theoretical and empirical literatures to analyse the role of socioeconomic and regulatory conditions on immigrant-native gaps across four outcomes; unemployment, monthly earnings, underemployment, and precarious contracts. The empirical results suggest that...

This paper analyzes the implications of labor market institutions and policies on the employment-labor productivity trade-off. We consider an equilibrium search model with wage posting and specific human capital investment where unemployment and the distribution of both wages and productivity...

We analyze the impact of the UK national minimum wage (NMW) on the employment of young workers. The previous literature found little evidence of an adverse impact of the NMW on the UK labor market. We focus on the age-related increases in the NMW at 18 and 22 years of age. Using regression...

This paper analyzes the implications of labor market institutions and policies on the employment-labor productivity trade-off. We consider an equilibrium search model with wage posting and specific human capital investment where unemployment and the distribution of both wages and productivity...