An analytically solvable model of new economic geography is developed. Acquisition of skills is costly for workers but it allows them to earn wages that are larger than those of the unskilled. Moreover, skills acquisition can be subsidized by a regional government. For large transport costs,...

This paper investigates the impact of labor markets and economies of agglomeration on firms location. We show that the existence of a lower bound on wage (e.g., a minimum wage or a reservation wage) introduces asymmetric location of firms. Moreover, changes in that lower bound or in global...

We develop a simple model to illustrate how the effects of turnover costs on wages can be reinforced by an efficiency wage effect. The insider-outsider theory explains why labour turnover costs allow the insiders to earn higher wages than outsiders. According to the efficiency wage theory,...

In this paper we study the employment effects of a budget neutral restructuring of taxes levied on employers and employees. We derive conditions for taxes levied on workers to have the same employment effects as taxes levied on firms under standard processes of wage determination. Copyright 2001...