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This thesis explores lobbying as an important political economy dimension of policymaking. It exploits theoretical, empirical, and numerical approaches and methods to investigate the possibilities of engaging in costly lobbying and how lobbying by special interests affects the setting of minimum wage and small business tax rates. The theoretical modeling relies on the common agency framework - a situation with multiple principals who are simultaneously and non-cooperatively interacting with a single agent - of public policy lobbying and a simpler principal agent model. Empirical analysis employs panel data regression methods in the context of Canadian provinces to identify causal relationship. Both minimum wage and small business taxation invite a considerable amount of activity from various special interest groups in Canada, which engage in lobbying for a policy stance more favorable to their members. After providing a brief overview of lobbying issues and literature in the first chapter, in the second one I show that initial lobbying cost can be a clear entry barrier, that lobbying competition can have properties of a high-stakes game and that lobbying can take place simply to preserve the status quo and not lose ground. In the pure rivalry sense, to not allow the opponent to gain ground in the policy arena. In the third chapter, I formulate a model of minimum wage determination based on the common agency lobbying framework to evaluate how the competition for political influence between unionized workers and firm owners affects the minimum wage determination. A binding minimum wage is a function of the policymaker's political ideology, the labor demand elasticity and the skill composition of union members. Specifically, when the elasticity of labor demand is large, the benefit of lobbying against (for) an increase in the minimum wage is greater since a potential minimum wage increase has a larger negative (positive) effect on firms' (unionized workers') income. Lobbying is successful in inducing the policymaker to set the minimum wage in accordance with her political preference; a more business (labor) friendly policymaker reduces (increases) the minimum wage. However, lobbying can also induce the policymaker to go against its ideological preference. Empirical analysis on a panel data for ten Canadian provinces over the 1965-2013 period gives considerable support for theoretical predictions. Preferred panel data regression specifications, controlling for unobserved province and year effects, and various province specific, time varying factors, indicate that real minimum wage decreases in skill-adjusted union density and a measure of political ideology, and increases with technological progress. Greater labor demand elasticity reinforces the influence of political ideology in the presence of lobbying. In the fourth chapter, I focus on the issue of small business tax determination and the effect of lowering its rate on income inequality. In Canada, where the small business income tax rate is considerably lower than the top individual rate, higher income individuals are able to reduce their personal taxes by retaining and shifting income via privately owned small businesses. Therefore, because the small business owners benefit from an increasing difference between the small business and top individual tax rates, I show using a principal-agent model that by lobbying as a special interest group they can always `buy' a lower corporate tax rate from the government. However, a lower business income tax, relative to a given personal income tax rate, is not income inequality neutral and unambiguously increases the income share of the highest earning individuals in the economy, specifically those who own small corporations. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Framing analyses have been among the most popular areas of research for scholars in political communication. Similarly, minimum wage legislation has been a popular topic for researchers in labor economics. However, few studies have used framing analysis to investigate the issue of minimum wage. This exploratory quantitative content analysis coded 45 variables in 236 lengthy press documents spanning 84 years of Democratic presidential administrations. More specifically, this study explored presence of generic frames, stakeholders, and ideological identities employed by Democratic presidential administrations since 1933. Results found that Democratic presidential administrations have been generally consistent in framing minimum wage policy. However, ideological discrepancies in Democratic presidents' actual framing practice were detected: a deepening pro-fairness attitude in specific frames and a growing pro-business empathy in stakeholder presence. The study concluded that framing minimum wage policy has become increasingly expressive: partisan identities transcend ideological positions. Democratic administrations generally maintain a single approach when highlighting minimum wage increase and endorse the Fair Labor Standards Act, albeit using different and even conflicting framing practices over time. To sustain the findings, this study suggests an equivalent study on Republican presidential administrations and their framing of minimum wage policy. / Master of Arts / Framing analyses have been among the most popular areas of research for scholars in political communication. Similarly, minimum wage legislation has been a popular topic for researchers in labor economics. However, few studies have used framing analysis to investigate the issue of minimum wage. This exploratory quantitative content analysis coded 45 variables in 236 lengthy press documents spanning 84 years of Democratic presidential administrations. More specifically, this study explored presence of generic frames, stakeholders, and ideological identities employed by Democratic presidential administrations since 1933. Results found that Democratic presidential administrations have been generally consistent in framing minimum wage policy. However, ideological discrepancies in Democratic presidents’ actual framing practice were detected: a deepening pro-fairness attitude in specific frames and a growing pro-business empathy in stakeholder presence. The study concluded that framing minimum wage policy has become increasingly expressive: partisan identities transcend ideological positions. Democratic administrations generally maintain a single approach when highlighting minimum wage increase and endorse the Fair Labor Standards Act, albeit using different and even conflicting framing practices over time. To sustain the findings, this study suggests an equivalent study on Republican presidential administrations and their framing of minimum wage policy

Several studies have shown that prices differ across regions and affect standards of living substantially. This thesis investigates whether they cause the differential impact of minimum wage on employment and hours of work across the European Union NUTS 2 regions. Based on the existing regional price estimates of 7 European Union countries and publicly available aggregate regional data, estimates of regional price levels for another 11 European Union countries with minimum wage are obtained. The method that was used for this purpose (multiple imputation) enables to use the resulting estimates as an explanatory variable in another regression as it takes into consideration using imputed instead of observed values by correcting the variances of parameter coefficients. The impacts of minimum wage are investigated for 3 groups of people who are at risk of being affected by its increase - young adults (15-19 years), low-educated individuals and low-skilled individuals. The results indicate that the minimum wage has a negative impact on employment that is higher in regions with higher price levels. The negative effect of minimum wage on hours of work was not confirmed.

The thesis analyzes an effect of raising the minimum wage and other variables on unemployment rate in the Czech Republic in 2006-2015. The empirical part is based on available time series, which were used to estimate models of unemployment for both women and men, including differently specified models and a model of overall unemployment. The time series used in regression models were adjusted for seasonality. Main hypothesis of this thesis was, that there is a positive correlation between raising the minimum wage and unemployment rate. Exogenous variables used in the models were chosen based on economic theory and existing literature. Results show, that there was no statistically significant relationship between the minimum wage and unemployment rate in the studied period. It was confirmed that there is a negative effect of GDP growth rate and inflation rate on unemployment rate, while unemployment benefits seem to have a positive effect

Thesis (M. Sc. Agriculture (Agricultural Economics)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / The President of South Africa signed the National Minimum Wage Act, the amendment of both the Basic Conditions of Employment Act and Labour Relations Act on Friday, 23 November 2018. These Acts, which were with effect from 1 January 2019, oblige all employers to pay at least the national minimum wage of R20.00/hr. and the agricultural sector has been given an exemption to pay 90% respectively of the national minimum wage (Truter, 2018). Employers in the farming sector are expected to pay at least R18.00 per hour to farm workers. However, farmers are different in terms of their characteristics and farming capacities, and they hold different perceptions towards the revised 2018 agricultural minimum wage. According to Sechaba (2017), it is believed that there will always be different views on what constitutes a decent and acceptable minimum wage. This study investigated the perception of both smallholder and commercial farmers towards the 2018 agricultural minimum wage in Bushbuckridge Local Municipality of the Mpumalanga Province, South Africa. The study had three objectives; the first objective was to identify and describe the socio-economic characteristics of farmers, the second one was to assess the perception of farmers on the 2018 agricultural minimum wage and the third one was to analyse socio-economic factors influencing the perception of farmers towards agricultural minimum wage in Bushbuckridge Municipality. Purposive sampling was used to collect primary data from 160 smallholder and commercial farmers (Crop and Livestock) in Bushbuckridge Local Municipality (BLM). For empirical analysis the Multinomial Logistic Model was applied for data analysis based on information generated using the Likert scale and the two formulated assumptions; firstly, farmers do not have negative perceptions towards the 2018 agricultural minimum wage and lastly socioeconomic factors do not influence farmers’ perception towards the 2018 agricultural minimum wage. For empirical analysis, Multinomial logistic regression model was run on spss and the descriptive statistics was used to analyse the perception of famers based on the rank data from the Likert scale. Results from Multinomial regression analysis indicated that demographic factors such as number of hectares, household size, age, farming experience, marital status, and labour productivity were found to be significant vi (at 1, 5 and 10%) in distinguishing between pairs of groups and contribution, which they make to change the odds of being in one dependent variable group rather than the other. About 48.8% sampled farmers in Bushbuckridge Local Municipality showed negative perceptions towards the 2018 agricultural minimum wage and were not likely to comply with the 2018 agricultural minimum wage legislation in a sense that they had not been paying the prescribed agricultural minimum wage to farm workers. Those who had positive perceptions and were willing to comply were only 15.0% and those who were uncertain on whether to comply or not comply with the 2018 agricultural minimum wage were 36.2%. Therefore, it can be concluded from results that smallholder and commercial farmers perceive the agricultural minimum wage differently and with majority of them not willing to comply or pay the prescribed amount. Additionally, several factors influences the perception on whether farmers were likely to comply or not to comply by paying the prescribed minimum wage to farm workers, based on the 2018 agricultural minimum wage. Variables: number of hectares, household size, age, experience, marital status and minimum wage were found to be significant (at different significant levels 1, 5 and 10%) in determining whether farmers were more likely or less likely to comply and pay the 2018 agricultural minimum wage. These variables plays a key role in determining farmers’ decision to comply or not to comply with the 2018 agricultural minimum wage. However, gender, minimum wage for farmers, distance to market, access to mechanisation, co-operative membership, access to news, pensioner and educational status were found to be insignificant (at different significant levels 1%, 5% and 10%) at determining whether farmers were likely to comply or not comply with the 2018 agricultural minimum wage. Thus, it is recommended that farmers, regardless of their production scale should be consulted and given a fair platform to articulate their views during the process of policy formulation. Policy makers and government should refrain from using a blanket approach when formulating a policy and taking into consideration the issue of disparities in the agricultural sector, subsectors, regions and operational scale of farmers when discussing the agricultural minimum wage policy.

The aim of our study is to investigate the effect of immigrants on wages for natives with divergent skill level within one country. Skill level is measured as education level and the purpose is to focus on the level where it according to us is a lack in research, namely the effect on high skilled native-born worker wages. Further, our contribution to the already existing studies may be considered to be a complement. Using panel data, collected from the time period 2000-2008 for the 290 municipalities in Sweden to get regional variation, we investigate and interpret the estimated outcome of how wages for native-born workers in the Swedish labor market respond to immigration into Sweden. The main findings, when controlling for age, unemployment, and differences between year and municipalities in this study are on the short run, in line with the theory. The closer to a substitute the native-born and foreign-born workers are, the greater are the adverse effect on the wage for native-born, given that we assume immigrants as low skilled. The effect on wage for high skilled native workers in short run, when assuming immigrants and natives as complement, is positive, i.e. the wage for high skilled natives increases as the share of immigrants increases. The effect on high skilled native-born wages is positive even in mid-long run and adverse for the low and medium skilled native-workers. This is not an expected outcome since we according to theory predict the wage to be unaffected in mid-long run. This may be the result of errors in the assumption that immigrants are low skilled, or that five years is a too short time to see the expected effect in the long run; the Swedish labor market may need more time to adjust to what we predict the outcome to be.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

This paper investigates in what way employment for low-skilled workers is connected to the wage dispersion in a country by comparing Sweden to six European countries. Previous research on this topic used cross-section analysis, but this essay takes another approach by comparing the changes in the wage dispersion and employment and by breaking down the change in the wage dispersion into parts and studying the change in the wage for different percentiles. The paper finds that wages in Sweden have not converged, which likely contributed to the increase in the employment gap between people with high and low skills. Two countries with different development were Germany and Norway. In line with recent research, in Germany, wage inequality increased and the employment gap between people with high and low skills decreased. In comparison, the case of Norway has not received much attention among researchers. Wages converged more in Norway than in Germany, yet employment increased more in Germany. The paper suggests a potential explanation: wages for the bottom percentiles of the earnings distribution fell in Germany, which it did not in Norway.