This paper studies the employment and reallocation effects of minimum wages in Germany in a search-and-matching model with endogenous job search effort and vacancy posting, multiple employment levels, a progressive tax-transfer system, and worker and firm heterogeneity. I find that minimum wages...

Minimum wages generate an asymmetric pass-through of firm shocks across workers. We establish this result leveraging employer-employee data on Italian metalmanufacturing firms, which face different wage floors that vary within occupations. In response to negative firm productivity shocks,...

We show that a minimum wage can have large effects throughout the earnings distribution, using a combination of theory and empirical evidence. To this end, we develop an equilibrium search model featuring empirically relevant worker and firm heterogeneity. We use the estimated model to evaluate...

This short note discusses the role of employer heterogeneity as a driver of growth and earnings inequality across the world. Policy implications are discussed.

This study investigates the effect of real exchange rate volatility on the distribution of income between labour and capital in South Africa. Both symmetric and asymmetric effects are considered. Using quarterly data for 1985:1-2018:3 and local linear projection, we find that the immediate...

Minimum wages alter the allocation of firm-idiosyncratic risk across workers. To establish this result, we focus on Italy, and leverage employer-employee data matched to firm balance sheets and hand-collected wage floors. We find a relatively larger pass-through of firm-specific labor-demand...

The federal government has implemented an earned income tax credit – what it has called the Working Income Tax Benefit – in the 2007 Budget. Edmund Phelps has argued that the earned income tax credit in the United States should be replaced with an employment subsidy. This paper assesses the...

The most direct mechanism by which labour productivity affects living standards is through real wages, that is, wages adjusted to reflect the cost of living. Between 1980 and 2005, the median real earnings of Canadians workers stagnated, while labour productivity rose 37 per cent. This report...

The federal government has implemented an earned income tax credit what it has called the Working Income Tax Benefit in the 2007 Budget. Edmund Phelps has argued that the earned income tax credit in the United States should be replaced with an employment subsidy. This paper assesses the...