AFRIKAANS : Hierdie studie is onderneem om te bepaal wat die persepsies van boere in die Letaba Distrik is oor die invloed van die instelling van die minimum loon vir landbou op hulle boerderybesighede. Die navorser wou bepaal of die boere hulle werknemers se werkskontrakte aangepas het of die loonpakket geherstruktureer het om vir die invloed op hulle boerderybesigheid te kompenseer. Die navorser wou ook bepaal of die indiensneming van plaaswerkers beïnvloed is. Laastens wou die navorser bepaal wat die invloed van die instelling van die minimum loon op die organisasiegedrag van plaaswerkers was. Om antwoorde op bogenoemde vraagstukke te verkry, het die navorser ‘n vraelys spesifiek vir die doeleindes van hierdie studie ontwerp. Die vraelys is deur al die sitrus boere in die Letaba distrik voltooi. Na bestudering van die inligting wat uit die data van die vraelyste verkry is, het die navorser tot die gevolgtrekking gekom dat boere permanente werknemers met tydelike werknemers vervang het en die loonpakket aangepas het deur die kontantloon te verhoog, maar ook die aftrekkings vir dienste en goedere wat voorheen kosteloos verskaf is. Indiensneming van plaaswerkers is baie negatief beïnvloed, met ongeveer 1270 permanente poste wat afgeskaf is na die instelling van die minimum loon. Wat die invloed op organisasiegedrag betref, het die minimum loon geen invloed na ‘n klein negatiewe invloed op afwesigheid en personeelomset getoon. Ten opsigte van produktiwiteit was werkgewers van mening dat, waar produktiwiteit verhoog het, dit as gevolg van beter bestuurspraktyke was. Werkgewers glo eerder dat die instelling van die minimum loon hulle werknemers se produktiwiteit laat daal het. Die implikasies van die resultate van hierdie studie is verreikend wanneer in ag geneem word dat bykans 1270 permanente poste op slegs 38 plase afgeskaf is. Dit impliseer dat die aantal poste wat in die landbou as geheel afgeskaf is, baie groot kan wees. Die persepsies van die boere oor die instelling van die minimum loon was dat dit ‘n bedreiging vir die volhoubaarheid van hulle boerderybesighede inhou en dat dit hulle verplig om stappe te neem om daarvoor te kompenseer, stappe wat nie noodwendig tot voordeel van werknemers strek nie. ENGLISH : This study was undertaken to ascertain what the perceptions of farmers in the Letaba district aren about the impact of the introduction of the minimum wage for agriculture on their farming businesses. The researcher wanted to ascertain whether the farmers adapted their workers’ contracts or restructured their wage package to compensate for the impact on the farming businesses. The researcher also wanted to ascertain whether the employment of farm workers were influenced. Lastly, the researcher wanted to ascertain what the influence of the introduction of the minimum wage was on the organisational behaviour of farm workers. To get answers on the above mentioned issues, the researcher designed a questionnaire specifically for this study. The questionnaire was completed by all the citrus farmers in the Letaba district. After studying the information derived from the data of the questionnaires, the researcher came to the conclusion that farmers substituted permanent workers with temporary workers and adapted the wage package by raising the cash wage but also the deductions of goods and services that were previously provided free of charge. Employment of farm workers were influenced very negatively with about 1270 permanent jobs that were scrapped after the introduction of the minimum wage. Regarding the impact on organisational behaviour, the minimum wage showed a small negative to no influence on absenteeism and worker turnover. Regarding productivity, employers were of the opinion the, where productivity was raised, it was due to improved management practises. Employers believe that the introduction of the minimum wage caused their workers’ productivity to decrease. The implications of the results of this study are far reaching when it is taken into account that roundabout 1270 permanent jobs were lost on only 38 farms. This implies that the amount of jobs lost in agriculture as a whole, could be great. The perceptions of farmers about the introduction of the minimum wage are that it is a threat to the sustainability of their farming businesses and that it obliges them to take steps to compensate for the impact, steps that aren’t always advantageous for the workers. Copyright 2008, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. Please cite as follows: Minnaar, ME 2008, Persepsies oor die uitwerking van minimum lone op die sitrusbedryf (Afrikaans), MCom dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-02132012-100400 / > C12/4/72/gm / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Human Resource Management / unrestricted

The aim of this thesis and its main contribution is to propose a model of optimal minimum wage that takes into account the income structure of the Czech population and the impact of adjustments to the minimum wage on unemployment and the structure of social transfers. Model brings the optimization of household income and savings in social policy redistribution, while optimizing employment and social benefits . The main hypothesis of this work is the assumption that the minimum wage can serve as a supplement social transfers. Given the ever- increasing expenditure on social security system and an open , lively debate about the consequences of the introduction of a minimum wage, this is a very current topic that needs attention. Contribution of research of this issue is to design possibilities for savings in expenditure on social policy. In the theoretical part the emphasis is aimed on the characteristics of household income, income inequality, the theoretical foundations of the social security system , tax theory and especially the concept of the minimum wage from the perspective of different economic schools. This part states the grounds for further statistical analysis and research in selected models of optimal minimum wage. The practical part is an analysis of three selected models of optimal minimum wage as well as an analysis of legislative developments and statistical values of key indicators to which the foundations were laid in the theoretical part. The research emphasizes the correlation between variables in national economy, identifying key social benefits appropriate to optimize and the implementation and effects of a possible increase in the minimum wage . The main focus of the practical part is a combination of previously gained knowledge to design model of optimal minimum wage.

The aim of the thesis is to analyse the German Act on the Regulation of a Minimum Wage, which affects Czech hauliers operating in Germany. First of all, macroeconomic and microeconomic issues in the field of road transport and of course the specifics of German Act (MILOG) are described. Secondly, the main effects of the law on business are analysed in case of the Czech haulier ¨Dítě Spedition s.r.o.¨ In the following, an increase in operating costs of the company according to the MILOG is calculated. Moreover, there is a prediction of potential scenarios in case of confirmation of legality of MILOG applying to the international road freight transport. In conclusion, the main arguments why the act is contrary to the basic principles of the single European market are explained.

The aim of my work is to describe the position of minimum wage in the Czech Republic and to insight its relationship with the other income quantities. In the first part I concentrated on the terms of related with minimum wage and after that I dealer with the development of minimum wage and I analyze its relationship with other income quantities. The last part compares the level of minimum wage in the Czech Republic with the other member states of the European Union where the minimum wage is determined by the law.

Die Einführung des flächendeckenden gesetzlichen Mindestlohns von 8,50 Euro ist ein großes, mit vielen sozialpolitischen Risiken verbundenes Experiment. Im ersten Teil dieses Übersichtsartikels zeigen wir, dass weder die unterschiedlichen theoretischen Erklärungsmodelle noch die große Anzahl empirischer Arbeiten aus anderen Ländern die Hoffnung rechtfertigen, der Mindestlohn würde in Deutschland keine substantiellen Beschäftigungsverluste mit sich bringen. Im zweiten Teil verwenden wir dann aktuelle Daten zur Lohnverteilung in Deutschland, um mit Hilfe einer Simulationsrechnung für die unterschiedlichen theoretischen Szenarien zu untersuchen, welche Beschäftigungsrisiken für unterschiedliche Zielgruppen durch die Einführung eines flächendeckenden Mindestlohns von 8,50 Euro drohen. Besonders stark betroffen sind die heutigen „Aufstocker“, die von der Mindestlohnerhöhung kaum etwas mit nach Hause nehmen können, aber in Zukunft einem ungleich höheren Arbeitsplatzrisiko ausgesetzt sind. Diese Befunde lassen zweifeln, dass die Politik mit dem Mindestlohn ihre erklärten Ziele einer erhöhten Verteilungsgerechtigkeit und der Entlastung der öffentlichen Haushalte erreichen kann.

The thesis discusses what it means to institute a minimum wage and the different types of wages in the Czech Republic. It also deals with an overview of changes in the minimum wage in selected countries of the European Union, and unemployment in the countries. To find out what you can buy for minimum wage are given consumer basket of major cities in selected countries. The next chapter deals with the influence of the minimum wage on unemployment. The conclusion discusses the possible impact of the minimum wage in the construction industry.

To many economists the public's support for the minimum wage (MW) institution is puzzling, since the MW is considered a "blunt instrument'' for redistribution. To delve deeper in this issue we build models in which workers are heterogeneous in ability. In the first model, the government does not engage in any type of redistributive policies - except for the payment of unemployment benefits; we find that the MW is preferred by the majority of workers (even when the unemployed receive very generous unemployment benefits). In the second model, the government engages in redistribution through the public provision of private goods. We show that (i) the introduction of a MW can be preferred by a majority of workers only if the unemployed receive benefits which are substantially below the after-tax earnings they would have had in the perfectly competitive case, (ii) for a given generosity of the unemployment benefit scheme, the maximum, politically viable, MW is lower than in the absence of in-kind redistribution, and (iii) the MW institution is politically viable only when there is a limited degree of in-kind redistribution. These findings can possibly explain why a well-developed social safety net in Scandinavia tends to co-exist with the absence of a national MW, whereas in Southern Europe the MW institution "complements'' the absence of a well-developed social safety net.

This dissertation studies the determinants of the spatial distribution of economic activity and how such activity is affected by public policy. The dissertation contains three chapters. In the first chapter, we ask: what role does labor market competitiveness play in determining the location decisions of firms and workers, and the resulting spatial wage distribution? To answer this question, we develop a model of monopsony power in spatial equilibrium. Workers and firms are free to locate in any labor market, and the degree of market power a firm enjoys depends on the number of competing firms in its location. We show the model can rationalize concentrations of economic activity and the city-size wage premium through an endogenous labor market competitiveness channel: in larger labor markets, endogenous firm entry increases labor market competition, decreasing wage markdowns and increasing equilibrium wages. To estimate the magnitude of labor market competitiveness differences across space, we utilize matched employer-employee data from Germany. Using a canonical empirical methodology from the labor economics literature on monopsony, we estimate that labor markets are significantly more competitive in larger cities. Calibrating the model to match this reduced-form evidence, we find endogenous labor market competitiveness can explain 37% of the city-size wage premium and 14% of all agglomeration. In the second chapter, we use the new framework developed in Chapter 1 to study the spatial and welfare implications of the 2015 German national minimum wage law. We first show a traditional spatial model that ignores variation in monopsony power across space predicts large unemployment effects in smaller, lower-wage labor markets, contradicting the reduced-form evidence on the effects of the law. Turning to our monopsony framework, we note that in the calibrated model, monopsony power is strongest in smaller, lower-wage labor markets: exactly those that the perfectly competitive model predicted would have the largest unemployment effects. Imposing the minimum wage in the calibrated monopsony framework, we find results in line with the reduced-form evidence — minimal unemployment effects, even in the lowest-wage labor markets, and therefore significant convergence in regional nominal wage inequality. Accounting for spatially-varying monopsony power, we find the enacted national law outperforms an alternative policy with a lower level of the minimum wage in East Germany, while a law that takes into account variation in productivity and competitiveness significantly outperforms both. In the third chapter (joint with Pablo Ernesto Warnes and Timur Abbiasov), we examine the effects of pedestrianization on business visits. There are significant debates in urban planning on the use of road space in cities. Should (some) streets be pedestrianized? Critics suggest closing streets to vehicles can harm local businesses by reducing access. The effect of pedestrianization on business visits has been difficult to assess due to the lack of an appropriate experiment and lack of systematic data on foot traffic. We examine a unique recent experiment, New York City's Open Streets program, which closed hundreds of street segments to cars, and utilize new anonymized cellphone geodata to measure visits to businesses. Using a matched difference-in-differences design, we find small effects of the program on visits overall, with sufficient precision to rule out significant negative effects, contradicting critics' predictions. We find significant positive effects on visits for Open Streets further from the Central Business District, especially for restaurants and bars. For such businesses, we find a 14% increase in visits as a result of the program.

Summary in English. / Bibliography: pages 35-36.

<p>Food safety is important to prevent foodborne illnesses that can negatively affect public health and the economy. Preventative measures can be taken by government agencies, food-related workers, and consumers to reduce the occurrence of such illnesses. This paper examines the impact of government policies on food safety from the perspective of consumers, restaurant employees and employers, and food processing workers. The first essay explores how food safety recalls affect consumer behavior. The second essay studies the impact of minimum wage policies on service quality in the restaurant industry. The third essay investigates the effect of minimum wage policies on product food safety in the meat and poultry processing industry. </p>