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This thesis evaluates the impact of minimum wages on labour market outcomes, exploiting variation in its "bite" across areas and years. In the UK, a National Minimum Wage (NMW) was introduced in 1999 and has been up-rated each year since. This rather extended length of time since implementation constitutes an opportunity to take a retrospective look at the impact of this policy. Identification is based on variation in the "bite" of the NMW across local labour markets and the different sized year on year up-ratings. An "Incremental Difference-in- Differences" (ID iD) model is used in which each year's change in the NMW is considered as a separate interaction effect. This IDiD procedure allows one to evaluate the year-on-year impact of the up-rating of the NMW on different labour market outcomes. The effect of the NMW on UK wage inequality is also assessed. In order to identify the effect of this policy on the distribution of earnings, the strategy applied in the US by Lee (1999) and more recently by Autor et al (2010) is used. Variation in the relative level of the NMW across local areas is exploited in order to disentangle the NMW effect from movements in latent wage dispersion. Finally, new estimates of the employment effects of the Minimum Wage (MW) are produced focusing on a panel of 33 OECD and European countries for the period 1971- 2009. Cross-national variation in the level and timing of the MW up-rating is exploited. The panel allows one to take into account the institutional and other policy related differences that might have an impact on employment other than the MW. It also allows one to differentiate the effect of the MW on employment in periods of economic downturn as well as in periods of economic growth, exploiting the exact timing of the recessionary experiences in different countries. 3

This research was concerned with understanding how generational membership could be an indicator of reward preference. This idea was researched within an organisational environment where the attraction, retention and motivation through reward strategy was of continuing importance due to declining populations and generations, skills shortages and a general need to ensure a productive and contented workforce in a challenging marketplace. Also within this discussion is the need for organisations to enact reward strategies that positively support these issues through the psychological contract between employer and employee (total relationship rewards theories) and the need for rewards solutions that are less focused on what is widespread in the industry, and more so on what works most effectively for the organisation in its business and employee demographic context, based on knowledge provided through the employee voice (theories of best fit). Through the use of a variety of methods and most predominantly a quantitative web-based survey of 200 working-age adults, these ideas of reward preference and the questions around the workplace rewards and experiences that are most valued were analysed within the context of generation, gender and life stage. Initially, the focus of the research was to find a generational connection to reward preference as an opportunity to divide the workforce and provide rewards that specifically appealed to them. This has the potential to be used in a practical application of policy within organisations. Where this initial focus was perhaps on difference the results of the field research suggest a story of similarities. Where there were some differences between the generations with regard to preference there appears to be a strong life-stage influence that could be enhancing this effect and is most obvious when participants had care commitments. What was more telling was how focused employees were on what rewards were valued and this underlines the need for a simplistic approach when implementing policy through organisational reward strategy. Also worthy of note was the high value placed by all ages upon rewards that were intangible and were in the realm of the more relational aspects of the employer-to-employee exchange as opposed to the more materially-based transactional aspects of reward. While the results do not necessarily refute the use of all-encompassing reward schemes, there is support found in ensuring the rewards most important to employees are offered, implemented and managed effectively and that perhaps more focus is placed upon the intangible and more cost-efficient aspects of reward that are often not the popular strategic focus.

We analyze the impacts of globalisation on firm performance and firms‟ relative wage payments in an emerging economy context. Using a rich set of manufacturing firm census data for Chile, we study four specific empirical issues, (1) the impacts of foreign direct investment in services on firm total factor productivity (TFP) growth, (2) the heterogeneous effects of import competition on firm TFP, (3) the effect of import competition on firm product upgrading and, (4) the question whether trade had an impact on decreasing relative manufacturing wages. The analysis exploits the panel nature of the dataset, an exogenous measure of import competition – transport costs – and, most importantly, the availability of detailed information on firms‟ products and their prices to investigate these questions rigorously. Specifically, we use the latter information to compute improved TFP measures, analyze product upgrading with a direct quantitative measure - unit prices of firms‟ products – and assess the impact of price changes on wages not only by industry but equally at the firm level. We find an overall positive impact of import competition on firm performance – both on TFP improvements and product innovation. Moreover, results show a positive and significant effect of foreign direct investment in services on TFP growth. However, our results also suggest that globalisation alone may not be sufficient a tool for development. While import competition has a strongly positive impact on product upgrading, we do not find that competition from developed countries stimulates such innovation. The gap between both types of economies may be too large. Also, the overall positive impact of import competition on firm TFP is lower for smaller firms; they will not benefit to the same extent as larger firms. Finally, we find that price effects of trade do not explain the observed reduction in manufacturing wage inequality.

This thesis looks at the effects of flexible working arrangements on workers' labour market outcomes. The particular type of flexible working arrangement analysed in this thesis is called "flexitime". This is an arrangement which gives workers the freedom to choose when to start and end their work. Flexitime provides workers with a new way to cater to their domestic responsibilities and in turn may reduce the costs of participating in the labour market. Therefore, it is closely connected with workers' compensation structure, human capital accumulation process, labour supply and job mobility. The effects of flexitime on workers' labour market outcomes are analysed from three aspects: wage, labour supply, and job mobility. The first chapter gives an introduction and overview of the thesis. The second chapter is a study on the compensating wage differentials associated with flexitime. In general I do not find convincing evidence showing the existence of compensating wage differentials associated with flexitime. One possible reason might be that flexitime brings additional benefits to firms (such as increased productivity and reduced turnover rate) so that firms may not necessarily need to reduce actual wages in exchange for flexitime provision. In the third chapter, I develop a model describing how flexitime may affect workers' labour supply decisions. The main finding of the model is that flexitime will increase workers' labour supply when the benefit associated with flexitime (increased child care production efficiency) is high relative to the cost of wage reduction (prediction 1). Meanwhile, the model also predicts that flexitime causes high human capital workers to increase their labour supply more than low human capital workers (prediction 2). Empirical findings show that flexitime is positively associated with working mothers' labour market hours, which confirms model prediction 1. However, there is arguably insufficient empirical evidence verifying model prediction 2. The fourth chapter considers the relationship between flexitime and workers' job satisfaction and job mobility. Flexitime is associated with high job satisfaction levels for both male and female workers. It also reduces the probability of quitting for female workers with young children. Male workers' job mobility decisions are not significantly affected by flexitime. The fifth chapter gives the conclusion of the thesis.

Orientador : Prof. Dr. Mauricio Vaz Lobo Bittencourt / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciencias Sociais Aplicadas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Desenvolvimento Ecônomico. Defesa : Curitiba, 31/03/2016 / Inclui referências : f. 77-80 / Resumo: O trabalho procurou realizar uma investigação sobre o hiato de rendimentos público-privado por meio da Decomposição de Oaxaca-Blinder, Regressão Quantílica e Decomposição Quantílica de Melly. Ao contrário da maioria dos trabalhos existentes sobre o tema, o estudo ampliou o foco de pesquisa, procurando investigar tanto o período de 2004 a 2013, como apresentar recortes regionais para verificar a presença de heterogeneidade espacial. Os resultados encontrados mostraram que há um diferencial em favor dos trabalhadores do setor público ao longo de todo o período e em todas as regiões do país. Do hiato total, cerca de três quartos são devidos a atributos produtivos e o restante devese à diferença setorial entre os grupos. Na análise regional, observou-se que as regiões Norte e Nordeste apresentam tanto a maior desigualdade quanto o maior prêmio salarial. Por outro lado, a região Sudeste apresentou a menor desigualdade e menor prêmio. Finalmente, durante o período 2004-2013, o hiato de rendimentos apresentou relativa estabilidade, com redução nos quantis inferiores e o crescimento nos superiores. / Abstract: The study sought to conduct an investigation into the gap of public-private income through the decomposition of Oaxaca-Blinder, Quantile Regression and Melly’s Quantile Decomposition. Unlike most existing studies on the subject, the study has expanded the focus of research, seeking to investigate both the period 2004- 2013 and present regional sections for the presence of spatial heterogeneity. The results showed that there is a differential in favor of public sector workers throughout the period and in all regions of the country. The total gap, about three quarters are due to productive attributes and the rest is due to sectoral differences between the groups. In the analysis, it was observed that the North and Northeast regions have both greater inequality as the biggest wage premium. On the other hand, the Southeast had the lowest inequality and lower premium. Finally, during the period 2004-2013, yields the gap presented on stability, with a reduction in the lower quantiles, and the upper growth.

This thesis consists of three chapters that analyze theoretically the role of income inequality in consumer markets. Each chapter introduces distributional considerations into an economic model where previously inequality did not play a major role. Chapter one uses a consumer search model to show under what conditions the distribution of income within a community is related to the type of firms that exist within that community, impacting the level of prices. We show that if time and money costs of search are high enough, only the middle class have incentive to search and therefore are the most aggressive shoppers. Using a supply side model, we argue that firms located in more informed communities are more likely to enter the market as large low-priced retailers. Connecting these two results, the model shows under what conditions the size of the middle class can have a negative relationship with the level of prices. Chapter two demonstrates how firm pricing strategy and determinants of household location can interact to determine city structure. In this city, consumers and firms live on a continuous line interval. The model consists of two types of firms; many high-cost perfectly competitive firms located in the Central Business District, and one large low-cost "Superstore", choosing its price strategically. We show how the shopping habits of the consumer population, as determined by the relative price of the Superstore and the Corner Stores, can contribute to the various income segregation outcomes described in previous literature. In addition we consider the impact of city population structure on the pricing decision of a monopolist facing a competitive fringe. Chapter three uses a simple model of banking services to consider how deposit-taking banks price for their services and choose the type of deposit customers that they target. This chapter goes beyond previous theoretical work on consumer banking, identifying the role of household income in the access to deposit services. We show that a higher rate of return on investments available to banks lowers financial exclusion, increasing the profitability of low-income consumers for deposit-taking institutions. This suggests that the possibility of financial exclusion increases in periods of recession. The chapter demonstrates how an increase in income dispersion can lead to a greater proportion of consumers excluded from mainstream banking.