scholarly journals On the Incentives to Increase Input Efficiency under Monopoly Trade Unions

2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-51
Author(s):  
Tapan Biswas ◽  
Jolian McHardy
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Minimum Wage ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Utility Functions ◽  
Elasticity Of Substitution ◽  
Cournot Duopoly ◽  
Technological Improvement ◽  
Input Efficiency ◽  
Competitive Labor Market

We examine the effects of and the incentives for increasing input efficiency within a spatially segregated  Cournot duopoly with monopoly trade unions whose utility functions depend on both wages and employment. We show that with neoclassical as well as Leontief technology, unions raise wages to appropriate fully the gains from labor-saving technological (or organisational) improvements, leaving the firm with no incentive to invest in increasing the efficiency of workers. However, capital-saving     technological improvement may be profitable depending on the elasticity of substitution. Finally, we examine the implication of a fixed minimum wage (or competitive labor market) in one country.

Learning to Love the Government

2016 ◽  
Vol 68 (3) ◽  
pp. 538-575 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brett Meyer
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Minimum Wage ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Social Democratic Party ◽  
Wage Setting ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Uk

One counterintuitive variation in wage-setting regulation is that countries with the highest labor standards and strongest labor movements are among the least likely to set a statutory minimum wage. This, the author argues, is due largely to trade union opposition. Trade unions oppose the minimum wage when they face minimal low-wage competition, which is affected by the political institutions regulating industrial action, collective agreements, and employment, as well as by the skill and wage levels of their members. When political institutions effectively regulate low-wage competition, unions oppose the minimum wage. When political institutions are less favorable toward unions, there may be a cleavage between high- and low-wage unions in their minimum wage preferences. The argument is illustrated with case studies of the UK, Germany, and Sweden. The author demonstrates how the regulation of low-wage competition affects unions’ minimum wage preferences by exploiting the following labor market institutional shocks: the Conservatives’ labor law reforms in the UK, the Hartz labor market reforms in Germany, and the European Court of Justice's Laval ruling in Sweden. The importance of union preferences for minimum wage adoption is also shown by how trade union confederation preferences influenced the position of the Labour Party in the UK and the Social Democratic Party in Germany.

scholarly journals THE IMPACT OF MINIMUM WAGE ON THE LABOUR MARKET OF LITHUANIA

Ekonomika ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 90 (2) ◽  
pp. 78-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vita Karpuškienė
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Minimum Wage ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Eu Countries ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Eu

Recently, Lithuanian trade unions have announced the requirement for the government to raise the minimum wage by more than 10 percent, e.g. from 800 to 900 Lt. The aim of the study was to investigate the possible consequences of the implementation of such a requirement. Minimum wage (MW) macroeconomics in theoretical aspects and the practical evidence of it consequences in the EU countries are analyzed in the first part of the article. The second part provides an assessment of the impact of the 100 Lt raise in MW on the Lithuanian labor market. This assessment is carried out using econometric techniques.

scholarly journals Labor Markets

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meng Sun
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Labor Supply ◽  
Labor Markets ◽  
Minimum Wage ◽  
Demand Curve ◽  
Supply And Demand ◽  
Market Equilibrium ◽  
Labor Demand ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Competitive Labor Market

What is the labor market? Like the goods and services markets, a labor market consists of the supply and demand sides. In the labor market, while workers supply labor, firms demand labor. This chapter studies the backward-bending nature of the labor supply curve and the downward-sloping nature of the labor demand curve. We also analyze the labor market equilibrium in a perfectly competitive labor market. Several policies such as immigration and minimum wage will be introduced to illustrate how government policies affect the labor market equilibrium.

Schwäche der Tarifautonomie und Legitimitätsfragen im Arbeitsrecht und im Sozialrecht

2016 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-236
Author(s):  
Stephan Seiwerth
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Minimum Wage ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
System Change ◽  
State Regulation ◽  
The State ◽  
Social Security Administration ◽  
Collective Agreements ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Partners

AbstractSocial partners have played a privileged role in German social security administration since Bismarckian times. In 2014, a new legislation empowered the social partners to set the level of the statutory minimum wage and to demand the extension of collective agreements. This article examines the interdependence of the trade unions’ and employer organisations’ membership numbers and their involvement in state regulation of labour and social security law. In case the interest in autonomous regulations is not going to increase, the state will have to step in with more heteronomous regulation. This would incrementally lead to a system change.

Optimal Government Policies Related to Unemployment

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-111
Author(s):  
Chia-Hui Lu
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Minimum Wage ◽  
Wage Rate ◽  
Optimal Allocation ◽  
Government Policies ◽  
Unemployment Compensation ◽  
Heterogeneous Labor ◽  
The Government ◽  
Hiring Costs

This article studies the optimal government policies related to unemployment in a frictional labor market. To achieve the optimal allocation, we find that the government should not issue unemployment compensation or subsidies for hiring costs. Moreover, as both firms and households experience disastrous consequences related to the minimum wage, the government should not intervene in the labor market to influence the wage rate and should not set any minimum wage. What the government can do is to make appropriate expenditures on matching efficacy. Furthermore, considering heterogeneous labor abilities in the model does not change our main finding.

scholarly journals Substitutability and the Valuation of Natural Capital

Conservation ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 159-181
Author(s):  
Charles Perrings
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Natural Capital ◽  
Utility Functions ◽  
Elasticity Of Substitution ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Capital Assets ◽  
Relative Value

Chapter 7 considers the substitutability between produced and natural capital—assets used in the production of goods and services, and between environmental and other goods and services. It shows the ways in which the limits of substitutability are captured in both production and utility functions, and what this means for conservation. The chapter also discusses the relation between substitutability and the value of environmental inputs, using concepts of gross substitutability and complementarity, and the elasticity of substitution. The authors also note that the relative value of environmental inputs is frequently dependent on the environmental conditions under which production takes place.

scholarly journals Is the Minimum Wage Effective in a Context of Informality?

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 21
Author(s):  
Susana Herrero Olarte
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Minimum Wage ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Labor Income ◽  
South American ◽  
Poverty And Inequality ◽  
South American Region ◽  
Effect Estimation ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

There is a general trend in the South American region to increase the minimum wage (MW) to reduce poverty and inequality. However, empirical studies are inconclusive with respect to the effect of the MW. This study seeks to contribute to the empirical evidence regarding the impact of this policy by exploring its limitations and possibilities for reducing poverty in Ecuador. Unlike other studies, a measure to capture informality in the labor market is included. Using fixed effect estimation with panel data, I determine the relationship between labor income deciles and variations in the MW, using a proxy for its effectiveness. The results suggest that the MW positively affects the lower income deciles, to a lesser extent the intermediate deciles and with no effect on the higher ones. However, when considering a control for the degree of informality in the labor market, the effect on the lower deciles is mitigated. Therefore, increases in the MW may be a strategy to increase the income of the middle and vulnerable class, but it does not seem to be useful for reducing poverty.

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