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One purpose of labour unions is to promote equal outcomes for workers. However, immigration causes the labour force to become more heterogeneous. As a result, the promotion of equal outcomes may have unintended effects. This paper develops a search and matching model to investigate the effect of labour unions on the labour market opportunities of immigrants. The model is calibrated and then tested by running simulations. It is found that labour unions cause the unemployment rate of immigrants to be higher than that of natives, both with and without discrimination. The difference in unemploymentrate is greater when the difference between immigrants and natives is greater. In most cases, discrimination only has a small effect. To see large effects of discrimination, we have to consider extreme situations, such as when the difference between immigrants and natives is large, and, at the same time, immigrants make up a large fraction of the labour force. The results suggest that integration of immigrants may be ineffective when there is a labour union controlling wages.

This thesis explores the dynamics of economic relations and distributive outcomes according to displaced steelworkers' own accountings of deindustrialization and job loss. Whereas class analyses tend to investigate consciousness according to “true” versus “false” preferences and “post-class” scholars assert that “post-materialism” is replacing “materialist” social concerns, the author abandons these dualisms to demonstrate that workers use cultural codes of “purity” and “pollution” to represent and evaluate individuals, interests, and relations. The findings buttress the continuing relevance of social class for explaining social identity, consciousness, and antagonism.

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Thesis advisor: Christopher Maxwell / This paper aims to measure the impact of increases to Seattle minimum wage from the years 2015 – 2018 on total earnings of the greater Seattle area. My research concentrates on low-wage industries but also touches upon the effect on high wage industries and the overall economy. Also, to ensure continuity of results, models were replicated at the federal level. This question is important because of a modern movement for higher state and city minimum wages. There have been several research papers about this topic already; however many economists have come up with conflicting results. My methods are a combination of previously used methods in an attempt to provide an unbiased analysis. In addition, research that has been released on this topic only covers the initial increases in minimum wage from 2015 – 2016. My research expands on this time frame and analyzes the impact of minimum wage increases from 2015 – 2018. My results show a statistically significant positive impact of minimum wage on total earnings for the greater Seattle area, not just for low-wage industries but also for the overall economy. These results show that a high minimum wage can be beneficial for the economy. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2019. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Economics.

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<p>This thesis deals with the incidence and economic effects of payroll taxes earmarked for unemployment insurance. A major objective is to provide an appropriate theoretical framework for a discussion of this issue. In cases where D.I. coverage is reasonably comprehensive, S6 that the D.I. tax can be regarded as a broad based tax, it is argued that the proper engine of analysis is basically the standard macroeconomic general equilibrium model. The macroeconomic effects of taxation, whether they originate from the demand or supply side, are regarded as an integral part of incidence analysis.</p> <p>The standard macro framework requires modification in one direction, which is a ~ore detailed development of the aggregate labour supply function. This reflects the view that the most important macroeconomic effects of unemployment insurance are likely to emerge from the supply side, via work incentives.</p> <p>A number of variants of a small macroeconomic model are developed, each incorporating an explicit modelling of a hypothetical D.I. system. Qualitative incidence results are obtained using the traditional method of comparative statics, while a quantitative dimension is added in static and dynamic simulation exercises with plausible parameter values drawn from the relevant econometric literature. Different versions of the model employ various alternative hypotheses about the way in which the labour market operates and/or different specifications of the aggregate labour supply function.</p> <p>The incidence results depend largely on the effect of payroll tax increases on labour supply. In the so-called neoclassical version of the model, for example, payroll tax increases reduce both participation and average weeks worked by participants, but tax and benefit rates are connected via the D.I. budget constraint, and benefit rate changes also effect labour supply. An increase in the benefit rate will tend to reduce average weeks worked by participants but to increase participation itself. Therefore a balanced budget increase in payroll tax rates has a potentially ambiguous effect on labour supply. If the net impact on lahour supply is negative we obtain the 'standard' incidence results. A balanced budget increase in payroll tax rates reduces output and emplo)~ent, increases the general price level, and reduces both capital and labour income. (Similar results also occur in other versions of the model in which the labour market does not clear due to (e.g.) real or money wage rigidity.) On the other hand, if the net impact on labour supply is positive we obtain 'perverse' results, increases in output and employment, reductions in the price level and so on.</p> <p>The comparative static analysis and simulation exercises enable us to identify the key parameters in the aggregate labour supply function, and their critical values. For plausible parameter values, chosen on the basis of the available empirical evidence, it would appear that perverse results are not likely. However, there is clearly a need for more empirical investigation in this area.</p> <p>These results conflict with the traditional view that labour bears the full burden of payroll taxation, but we conclude that this view depends heavily on the assumed inelasticity of the aggregate labour supply function. The latter assumption is demonstrated to be inconsistent with the bulk of the empirical evidence on labour supply.</p> <p>Finally, some attention is also paid to the aggregate demand effects of unemployment insurance, in particular the case where the savings propensity out of U.I. benefits is less than that out of private factor incomes.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>This thesis comprises three essays. The first two essays examine what inferences can be drawn about the structure of wages from the experiences of displaced workers using the Ontario Ministry of Labour Plant Closure Survey. The third essay examines the effect of unemployment benefits on household consumption during spells of unemployment, with a particular emphasis on durables purchases. It employs data from a second and new data source, the Canadian Out of Employment Panel.</p> <p>The first essay revisits the issue of what can be learned about wage tenure profiles from displaced worker data. The positive relationship between wages and tenure in cross section data is consistent with the accumulation of firm specific capital. Alternatively, it may be explained by unobserved heterogeniety across workers, or by endogenous mobility. Displaced worker data is quite helpful in correcting for the first possible bias, and less so for the second. The relationship between various estimation strategies in the literature is illustrated. Estimates that control for individual heterogeniety and endogenous mobility driven by systematic differences in the pay policies of firms are presented. In this data, 10 years of tenure appears to raise wages by about 7%.</p> <p>The second essay examines intra-industry wage differentials. Even after conditioning on a rich set of worker and job characteristics, firm of employment is a significant determinant of wages. Estimates that employ the longitudinal nature of data demonstrate that sorting of workers across firms by unobserved ability can explain about half of the observed differentials. Firm wage differentials are observed within narrow industries, consistent across broad occupational groups, and robust to conditioning on differences in the mix of skills or job characteristics. Further "high wage" firms exhibit high average tenures suggesting that positive wage premia are associated with reduced mobility. These observations imply that compensating wage differentials are also a poor candidate explanation for the observed differentials. The results are more consistent with models based on rents or some firm monopsony power. The results also raise questions about the interpretation of wage regressions which ignore firm heterogeneity, and about the sources of wages losses among displaced workers.</p> <p> The final essay examines how households smooth consumption over the income losses due to an unemployment spell. A model of "internal capital markets" is proposed, which suggests that households adjust the timing of the replacement of small durables to income flows. The plausibility of this model is investigated empirically, using a series of program changes in the Canadian unemployment insurance scheme for exogenous variation in transitory income. The data are consistent with the predictions of the "internal capital markets model" while rejecting both a standard life cycle model and a "rule of thumb" model of household expenditure patterns.</p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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