Emigration, Finite Changes and Wage Inequality

Globalisation and Labour Markets Research Paper 2009 / 20 Emigration , Wage Inequality and Vanishing

Emigration leads to finite changes in structure of production and sectors vanish because they cannot pay higher wages. Does emigration of one type of labour hurt the other non-emigrating type in this set up? We demonstrate various scenarios when real income of the emigrating and the non-emigrating type do not move together and in the process generalize some of the existing results in the litera...

Changes in the Wage Structure and Earnings Inequality

Wage Inequality, Minimum Wage Effects and Spillovers

This paper investigates possible spillover effects of the UK minimum wage. The halt in the growth in inequality in the lower half of the wage distribution (as measured by the 50:10 percentile ratio) since the mid 1990s, in contrast to the continued inequality growth in the upper half of the distribution, suggests the possibility of a minimum wage effect and spillover effects on wages above the ...

Wage Inequality Changes in Brazil: Market Forces, Macroeconomic Instability

In this paper I examine the sources of wage inequality changes among prime age male workers in Brazil during the 1980’s and 1990’s. Inequality increased in the 1980’s and decreased in the 1990’s. I begin by decomposing these changes into three effects. First, the effect due to changes in the skill distribution of the workers; second, the effect due to changes in skill prices and premiums; and t...

Wage inequality, technology, and trade

Recent widening of the wage gap between skilled and unskilled workers has been attributed mainly to skill-biased-technical-change and to trade liberalization. This paper examines the effects of the two in a unified model, in which trade and technology adoption are endogenous. The paper has two main results. First, technical progress increases the wage gap in developed and in less developed coun...