In this paper, the authors present a new approach to estimate the impact of a minimum wage on the labor market of the construction sector in Germany. Instead of estimating the effect on employment, the authors focus on the change of prices on a firm level in order to differentiate between a...

Occupational licensing is among the fastest-growing labor market institutions in the U.S. economy. One of the key features of occupational licensing is that the law determines who gets to do the work. In those cases where universally licensed occupations are both complements to and substitutes...

The implications of a binding minimum wage law on employment have been the subject of a lively and ongoing debate. Estimation of employment effects may be hindered by the non-random manner in which minimum wage laws are created. To overcome this, we explore the employment implications of the...

This paper gives an overview of the recent labor market reform in Italy. We focus on the trade-off underlying the spirit of the reform: to increase the use of open-ended contracts the reform reduced the opportunity of (mis)using of temporary contracts and concurrently reduced the costs of...

Why is the employment effect of the minimum wage frequently found to be close to zero? Theory tells us that when wages are below marginal productivity, as with monopsony, employers are able to increase wages without laying off workers, but systematic evidence directly supporting this explanation...

Economists increasingly refer to monopsony power to reconcile the absence of negative employment effects of minimum wages with theory. However, systematic evidence for the monopsony argument is scarce. In this paper, I perform a comprehensive test of monopsony theory by using labor market...

Economists increasingly refer to monopsony power to reconcile the absence of negativeemployment effects of minimum wages with theory. However, systematic evidence for themonopsony argument is scarce. In this paper, I perform a comprehensive test of monop-sony theory by using labor market...

This study investigates the recent trends in labour market power in Italy and assess-es the impact of a potential minimum wage using a large sample of manufacturing firms. We show that, despite an average shift of labour market power from the own-ers to the workers, monopsony power is still...

Minimum wages decrease employment in competitive markets, but can increase it in monopsonistic markets so long as they do not exceed the marginal product of labour. We find evidence of non-monotonicity both by market structure and minimum wage level. Minimum wage hikes initially increase hours...

Economists increasingly refer to monopsony power to reconcile the absence of negativeemployment effects of minimum wages with theory. However, systematic evidence for themonopsony argument is scarce. In this paper, I perform a comprehensive test of monop-sony theory by using labor market...