I consider the case for the minimum wage alongside (optimal) income taxes when workers differ in both wages and working hours, such that a given level of income corresponds to multiple wage rates. The minimum wage is directly targeted at the lowest-wage workers, while income taxes are at most...

Labor economics often assumes that wages w are equal to the marginal revenue product of labor MRP L. However, recent literature has shown that firms' market power allows them to pay wages substantially below marginal productivity. The markdown (MRP L - w)/w is our preferred measure of firms'...

This paper examines the role of positive income shocks in helping workers adapt to extreme temperatures. We use daily temperature variations alongside the exogenous implementation of a wage and fiscal policy in Mexican municipalities along the US border to show that increased disposable income...

Using the 2015 introduction of a statutory minimum wage in Germany as a quasi-experiment, I investigate the effects of wage increases on personality. The degree to which each worker's wage is intended to be affected by the reform is used as an instrument for the relative increase in the worker's...

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...

Higher wages increase labor costs but improve the productivity of the labor force through several channels. If firms take this into account and set their wages accordingly, the resulting wages may fail to adjust demand and supply but may engender phenomena like over-education, discrimination,...