Offering higher wages may enable firms to attract more applicants and screen them more carefully. If firms compete in this way in the labor market, "selection wages" emerge. This note illustrates this wage-setting mechanism. Selection wages may engender unconventional results, such as a pre-tax...

This paper analyzes the effects of inter-industry and firm size on wage differentials,focusing on how their estimated effects vary by the introduction of elements indicating firm characteristics such as wage-experience profiles.Using the worker-establishment matched data, we find that...

This report finds that unionized black workers earn more than their non-union peers. In addition, the data show that black workers in unions are more likely to have health-insurance benefits and a pension plan than their non-union counterparts.

This essay investigates the interaction between demand uncertainty and non-competitive labor markets where firm owners have the option to shut down and relocate. Workers cannot find new jobs instantly and therefore accept wage reductions to avoid unemployment, if firm owners credibly threaten to...

This paper presents both theoretical analysis and econometric evidence for the United States, Great Britain and Norway on the extent to which hourly wages of different groups of workers are sensitive to local labour market conditions. We focus on differences by union status. Our theoretical...

In recent years, a small but growing literature concerned with the empirical analysis of the workings of internal labour markets has emerged. These studies, which have almost exclusively been based on personnel records data from single firms, notably Lazear (1992) and Baker, Gibbs and Holmström...

Wage mobility among low wage earners has previously been focussing on the <p> characteristics of the low wage earners, whereas the role of the firm has been neglected. The <p> purpose of this study is to focus on the characteristics of the firms when analysing variation in <p> wage mobility. The...</p></p></p>

Like many transition economies, Slovenia is undergoing profound changes in the workings of the labor market with potentially greater flexibility in terms of both wage and employment adjustment. We investigate the impact of the changing labor market for Slovenia using unique longitudinal matched...

This paper analyses the impact of labor market conditions on a firm's incentive to train its workers. In an equilibrium model of the labor market in which firms use both untrained and in-house trained workers, we show that the incidence of training increases with the tightness of the labor...

This paper uses the British Household Panel Survey to investigate when seniority is rewarded by automatic incremental scales. Scales are seen as an alternative to individual merit pay. They are likely to be used when individual productivity is hard to measure, when firms provide all workers with...