Neoclassical economic theorys assumption of a strictly utility of money maximizing economic actor has been unable to explain such economic phenomena as involuntary unemployment and above market clearing wages. Efficiency wage theory, in its various forms, has provided some explanation for these labour market features. Akerlofs (1982) Fair Wage-Effort Hypothesis or Partial Gift Exchange model of the labour market explains involuntary unemployment through the productivity enhancing effects of higher wages. In Akerlofs model this is done through a sort of unspoken gift exchange in which higher wages given to the workers are returned to the firm in the form of higher effort or productivity. <p>The Partial Gift Exchange model can also be modeled in a laboratory setting where its various predictions and assumptions can be tested. This has been done by a number of researchers over the last 15 years, who have generally found support for the validity of the theory using a one sided oral auction procedure. This thesis seeks to conduct a similar experiment, but in the form of a survey, the focus of which is the relationship between wages and effort. <p>A number of the results of previous experiments supporting the Fair Wage-Effort Hypothesis have also been generated in the survey, for example a positive relationship between wages and effort. New and interesting findings not previously examined in the lab or not present in previous experiment were also present in the survey: the negative effect of wage inequity; a positive coefficient for the gender dummy variable; and the negative effect of unemployment insurance. <p>The survey has produced some new and interesting results, transporting the survey back into the laboratory setting from which it was inspired would provide an interesting comparison.

Neoclassical economic theorys assumption of a strictly utility of money maximizing economic actor has been unable to explain such economic phenomena as involuntary unemployment and above market clearing wages. Efficiency wage theory, in its various forms, has provided some explanation for these labour market features. Akerlofs (1982) Fair Wage-Effort Hypothesis or Partial Gift Exchange model of the labour market explains involuntary unemployment through the productivity enhancing effects of higher wages. In Akerlofs model this is done through a sort of unspoken gift exchange in which higher wages given to the workers are returned to the firm in the form of higher effort or productivity. <p>The Partial Gift Exchange model can also be modeled in a laboratory setting where its various predictions and assumptions can be tested. This has been done by a number of researchers over the last 15 years, who have generally found support for the validity of the theory using a one sided oral auction procedure. This thesis seeks to conduct a similar experiment, but in the form of a survey, the focus of which is the relationship between wages and effort. <p>A number of the results of previous experiments supporting the Fair Wage-Effort Hypothesis have also been generated in the survey, for example a positive relationship between wages and effort. New and interesting findings not previously examined in the lab or not present in previous experiment were also present in the survey: the negative effect of wage inequity; a positive coefficient for the gender dummy variable; and the negative effect of unemployment insurance. <p>The survey has produced some new and interesting results, transporting the survey back into the laboratory setting from which it was inspired would provide an interesting comparison.

Using theoretical and empirical approaches, this thesis asks whether skilled and unskilled labour complement or substitute one another in production. We primarily investigate whether an increase in the proportion of workers with skills would raise or lower demand for those who remain unskilled. A secondary issue is the role of factor prices in labour demand. To study the role of factor prices, we estimate labour demand elasticities and Alien elasticities of substitution between capital and up to five occupations in South Africa. We supplement firmlevel data with household survey information and confirm theoretically that the elasticities can be estimated from a cost function under non-constant returns to scale. We show that separable disaggregated inputs can be used to find aggregate elasticities: more skilled and less skilled aggregates are p-complements, so a fall in skilled wages would lead to a rise in demand for less skilled labour. Disaggregated estimates suggest unskilled workers are p-complements with semi-skilled workers but p-substitutes with skilled/artisanal labour. We investigate the effects of a rise in skill supply on the relatively unskilled by estimating Hicks elasticities of complementarity and factor price. Aggregated estimates suggest more skilled and less skilled labour are q-complements, so an exogenous rise in the supply of skilled labour would raise demand for less skilled labour. Disaggregated estimates suggest skilled/artisanal and unskilled labour are q-complements while semi-skilled and unskilled labour are q-substitutes. The results allow for imperfectly elastic product demand and rigid wages. Using an endogenous growth model, we show technological progress is skill-biased in the South if it is in the North, resulting in rising wage inequality in developing countries. Assuming skilled and unskilled labour are perfect substitutes, we model expanded educational access as it adds relatively educated cohorts to the labour market. A rising skill composition causes accelerated skill-biased technological change and wage inequality. Relaxing the assumption of perfect substitutability, a one-off rise in skill supply only raises wage inequality if the elasticity of substitution is high, higher than existing empirical estimates.

There is at the present time a need for a great deal more study regarding the way in which wage payments are determined. Are wages determined or fixed by natural law? Or are they administered through the conscious effort of man? It will be the purpose of this study to partially investigate the determination of wages both theoretical and actual. Perhaps some insight may be gained that will give rough answers to the above questions.

The overriding theme of my dissertation is the use of short-term weather fluctuations to study how people allocate their time across activities. In Chapter 1, a theoretical model is developed to distinguish malfeasant from legitimate forms of employee sickness absenteeism. In this model, individuals' marginal utility of indoor leisure is increasing in their sickness levels, while their marginal utility of outdoor leisure is an increasing function of the interaction of their health and the quality of outdoor weather. In equilibrium, sickness absenteeism occurs at both ends of the sickness distribution -- among the relatively sick and among the most healthy facing the best weather. The positive relation between marginal changes in weather quality and levels of sickness absenteeism in the workplace reflects the substitution of the inframarginal employees who are the least sick away from work activities towards outdoor leisure activities. The model in Chapter 1 suggests an empirical strategy to identify a shirking component in overall reported sickness absenteeism. Not only does this approach avoid attributing entirely legitimate forms of absenteeism to shirking, but unlike previous studies using employee dismissal rates, it is able to distinguish shirking activity whether or not that activity is detected by employers. In order to exploit exogenous weather fluctuations to identify shirking activity, we need a one-dimensional measure of weather “quality”. The primary objective of Chapter 2 is to construct a weather quality index that captures the influence of the weather on workers' preferences for outdoor leisure activity. The weather quality index takes into account the multifaceted nature of weather conditions, and measures how various weather elements -- temperature, humidity, precipitation, wind speed, and cloud cover -- come together to affect the propensity of employees to engage in high-utility outdoor recreational activities. The resulting index provides a ranking of different weather conditions in terms of their outdoor recreational values, which can then be used to capture the incentives of employees to shirk contractual work hours in response to purely exogenous weather changes. Chapter 3 empirically tests the existence of weather-induced substitution between work and outdoor leisure activities and examines how this type of behaviour varies across workers facing different shirking incentives. Linking 12 years of employee data from Canada's monthly Labour Force Survey (LFS), which queries reasons for employees' absences, to weather quality measured using the index constructed in Chapter 2, a clear positive relationship is found between the quality of outside weather conditions and short-term reported sickness absenteeism. Moreover, consistent with a key proposition of the theoretical model in Chapter 1, the empirical relation between weather and sickness absenteeism tends to be larger when existing shirking incentives are low, such as when sick pay is less generous and when probability of getting fired if caught shirking is high. There is, however, little evidence that firms are able to adjust shirking incentives through the payment of efficiency wages. Finally, Chapter 4 examines another type of substitution induced by weather shocks -- the substitution between outdoor and indoor physical activities. The Chapter begins with a theoretical model of the decision to participate in physical activities, which assumes that when adverse weather shocks deter outdoor physical activities, indoor physical activities are the only viable option for individuals to stay physically active. However, because the indoor options are more costly, substituting from outdoor to indoor physical activities is easier for higher-income individuals. This suggests an explanation for the stylized fact that rates of physical activity participation are low among lower socioeconomic groups. Linking time-use data from Canadian General Social Survey with archival weather data, the results of the empirical analysis in this chapter provides evidence of a positive income effect enabling substitution from outdoor to indoor physical activities when outside weather is not conducive for participating in outdoor activities. By exploiting the role that income plays in maintaining physical activity levels when less costly outdoor options are limited, this chapter formally illustrates a credible causal link between people's income levels and their participation in leisure time physical activities and provides direct evidence of this link. The results have important policy implications for promoting physical activities, especially among lower income population.

The overriding theme of my dissertation is the use of short-term weather fluctuations to study how people allocate their time across activities. In Chapter 1, a theoretical model is developed to distinguish malfeasant from legitimate forms of employee sickness absenteeism. In this model, individuals' marginal utility of indoor leisure is increasing in their sickness levels, while their marginal utility of outdoor leisure is an increasing function of the interaction of their health and the quality of outdoor weather. In equilibrium, sickness absenteeism occurs at both ends of the sickness distribution -- among the relatively sick and among the most healthy facing the best weather. The positive relation between marginal changes in weather quality and levels of sickness absenteeism in the workplace reflects the substitution of the inframarginal employees who are the least sick away from work activities towards outdoor leisure activities. The model in Chapter 1 suggests an empirical strategy to identify a shirking component in overall reported sickness absenteeism. Not only does this approach avoid attributing entirely legitimate forms of absenteeism to shirking, but unlike previous studies using employee dismissal rates, it is able to distinguish shirking activity whether or not that activity is detected by employers. In order to exploit exogenous weather fluctuations to identify shirking activity, we need a one-dimensional measure of weather “quality”. The primary objective of Chapter 2 is to construct a weather quality index that captures the influence of the weather on workers' preferences for outdoor leisure activity. The weather quality index takes into account the multifaceted nature of weather conditions, and measures how various weather elements -- temperature, humidity, precipitation, wind speed, and cloud cover -- come together to affect the propensity of employees to engage in high-utility outdoor recreational activities. The resulting index provides a ranking of different weather conditions in terms of their outdoor recreational values, which can then be used to capture the incentives of employees to shirk contractual work hours in response to purely exogenous weather changes. Chapter 3 empirically tests the existence of weather-induced substitution between work and outdoor leisure activities and examines how this type of behaviour varies across workers facing different shirking incentives. Linking 12 years of employee data from Canada's monthly Labour Force Survey (LFS), which queries reasons for employees' absences, to weather quality measured using the index constructed in Chapter 2, a clear positive relationship is found between the quality of outside weather conditions and short-term reported sickness absenteeism. Moreover, consistent with a key proposition of the theoretical model in Chapter 1, the empirical relation between weather and sickness absenteeism tends to be larger when existing shirking incentives are low, such as when sick pay is less generous and when probability of getting fired if caught shirking is high. There is, however, little evidence that firms are able to adjust shirking incentives through the payment of efficiency wages. Finally, Chapter 4 examines another type of substitution induced by weather shocks -- the substitution between outdoor and indoor physical activities. The Chapter begins with a theoretical model of the decision to participate in physical activities, which assumes that when adverse weather shocks deter outdoor physical activities, indoor physical activities are the only viable option for individuals to stay physically active. However, because the indoor options are more costly, substituting from outdoor to indoor physical activities is easier for higher-income individuals. This suggests an explanation for the stylized fact that rates of physical activity participation are low among lower socioeconomic groups. Linking time-use data from Canadian General Social Survey with archival weather data, the results of the empirical analysis in this chapter provides evidence of a positive income effect enabling substitution from outdoor to indoor physical activities when outside weather is not conducive for participating in outdoor activities. By exploiting the role that income plays in maintaining physical activity levels when less costly outdoor options are limited, this chapter formally illustrates a credible causal link between people's income levels and their participation in leisure time physical activities and provides direct evidence of this link. The results have important policy implications for promoting physical activities, especially among lower income population.

Submitted by Irene Nascimento (irene.kessia@ufpe.br) on 2017-01-16T18:07:59Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Isabele Tese versão biblioteca.compressed.pdf: 13790455 bytes, checksum: 20899ade48732c7559800742c7315e84 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-01-16T18:07:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Isabele Tese versão biblioteca.compressed.pdf: 13790455 bytes, checksum: 20899ade48732c7559800742c7315e84 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-06-30 / A tese elabora novos fundamentos para a teoria jurídica do salário, a partir da problematização e refutação das diversas concepções analíticas que reduzem o salário àquela dúplice perspectiva traçada pela doutrina clássica: a subordinação da força do trabalho ao capital e a compra e venda da força de trabalho. Na primeira parte, traça as visões da economia política clássica, da teoria marxista e da doutrina da igreja sobre o salário. Na segunda, narra as concepções sedimentadas pela teoria jurídico-trabalhista tradicional acerca do tema, além daquelas acolhidas pela OIT, a União Européia, o MERCOSUL, as normas internacionais e a posição da autora sobre o trabalho subordinado como objeto do direito o trabalho. Uma vez percorridas essas diretrizes, o estudo, na terceira parte, demonstra como a teoria jurídico-trabalhista crítica e as teorias sócias vêm salário, em meio a uma sociedade do trabalho em crise. Em seguida, enquadra as metamorfoses do trabalho em termos de dualização do assalariado, das evidências empíricas e do corte analítico que cuidam de redimensionar a crise o trabalho e do salário. Com base na Economia Solidária, na Renda Universal Garantida, na Teoria do Decrescimento e lançando mão de três princípios formulados pelo professor Everaldo Gaspar Andrade, a autora da tese expõe a sua proposta para reconfiguração da teoria jurídica do salário, com base na inversão da perspectiva salário patamar mínimo de sobrevivência para salário Condições Civilizatórias de Existência. Por fim, apresenta os nos seguintes pressupostos do salário: fontes, denominações, conceito, classificação, natureza jurídica e princípios. / This thesis draws up new grounds for the legal theory of wage composition, having its starting point at the questioning and refutation of various analytical concepts that reduce the salary to a dual perspective outlined by the classical doctrine: the subordination of the labor force to capital and the purchase and sale of labor power. The first part outlines the views of classical political economy, Marxist theory and the church doctrine of wages. The second narrates the views sedimented by traditional legal-labor theory on the subject, in addition to those accepted by the ILO, the European Union, Mercosur, international standards and the position of the author on the subordinate work as the object of labour law. Once covered these guidelines, the third part of the study shows how the legal-labor theory and critical members theories have earnings, amid a labor society in crisis. Then, fits the metamorphoses of the work in terms of dualization of wage, of the empirical evidence and of the analytical cut that resizes the crisis work and salary. Based on Solidarity Economy in Guaranteed Universal Income in ingrowth theory and making use of three principles formulated by Professor Everaldo Gaspar Andrade, the author of the thesis presents its proposal for reconfiguration of the legal theory of salary, based on the inversion of perspective wage minimum survival level for salary conditions civilizing Existence. Finally, it presents the following assumptions salary: sources, denominations, concept, classification, legal principles and nature.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-10T18:33:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rafaela M G Carnevale.pdf: 6422875 bytes, checksum: 7d6d65a2bbc6bbb7c8164d03c6a1317a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-15 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The purpose of this research is to identify and analyze the variables that affect the level of employment and the labor market in the Parana municipalities. As methodology, it was used the panel data model and two indicators: i) the Location Quotient (LQ) which indicated that the branches of activities to show representative in the municipalities for the variables employment, wage and education; ii) Pearson Correlation Coefficient, which from the LQ calculation showed the correlation between the three variables. The results of the econometric model showed that the variable that most positively affects the level of employment in the State of Parana is the value added at basic prices of services, while other variables showed negative impact, such as: education, per capita GDP and population, which confirms in part the economic theory approached by research. The tertiary sector is the most employs, which pays the highest average wages and also the one with more education in the state in 2002, 2007 and 2012, and the primary sector is the one that presented fewer formal employees, lower average wage and lower education sector, however it has many specialized municipalities in generating employment and average wage. Finally, the correlation between the variables showed that most municipalities are located in the scale negative correlation between the variables, but this number has been decreasing, and in 2012 the correlation between wage and education has more municipalities with positive correlation. The correlation between employment and education is the one that has more municipalities with negative coefficient, that is, in these municipalities the sectors that employ most do not seek high education, at last, the correlation between average wage and average education shows that most municipal districts that pay higher wages are those that require more education. / O objetivo desta pesquisa é identificar e analisar as variáveis que afetam o nível de emprego e o mercado de trabalho nos municípios paranaenses. Como metodologia utilizou-se o modelo de dados em painel e dois indicadores: i) o Quociente Locacional (QL) que indicou quais os ramos de atividades se mostram representativos nos municípios para as variáveis emprego, salário e escolaridade; ii) Coeficiente de Correlação de Pearson, que a partir do cálculo do QL apresentou a correlação existente entre as três variáveis analisadas. O resultado do modelo econométrico apontou que a variável que mais afeta positivamente o nível de emprego no Estado do Paraná é o valor adicionado a preços básicos dos serviços, enquanto apresentaram impacto negativo as variáveis escolaridade, PIB per capita e população. O setor terciário é o que mais emprega, o que paga os maiores salários médios e ainda o que apresenta maior escolaridade no estado nos anos de 2002, 2007 e 2012 e o setor primário é o que apresentou menor número de empregados formais, menor remuneração média e menor escolaridade setorial, no entanto é o que mais apresenta municípios especializados em geração de emprego e salário médio. Por fim, a correlação entre as variáveis apontou que a maioria dos municípios encontram-se na escala de correlação negativa entre as variáveis, mas este número vem se reduzindo, sendo que em 2012 a correlação entre salário e escolaridade possui mais municípios com correlação positiva, isto indica que nos municípios paranaenses, os ramos de atividade que mais empregam são aqueles que pagam os menores salários e que estes mesmo ramos demandam as menores escolaridades, enquanto os ramos de atividades que pagam os melhores salários são também os que demandam maior qualificação, em termos de escolaridade dos trabalhadores.