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06.18 06.19 经济系Seminar：Understanding the Outcomes of Minimum Wages in Developing Countries:Theory and Empirics with a Special Application to South Africa
发布时间：2015-06-05       浏览量：

演讲主题：Understanding the Outcomes of Minimum Wages in Developing Countries:Theory and Empirics with a Special Application to South Africa
时间：2015年6月18日上午10:00-11：30
      2015年6月19日上午10:00-11：30
地点：后主楼1620
演讲嘉宾：Haroon Bhorat，南非开普敦大学教授
主持人：李实，北京师范大学经济与工商管理学院
 
I: Overview
    Apervasive first principle in economics in general and labour economics in particular, is that there is a negative relationship between wages and employment. In one sense, this involves the estimation of the relationship in the form of wage-employment elasticities. There is therefore an on-going research agenda in much of the developing world, where such data exists. A sub-set of this broader question though, is trying to work through and understand the impact of minimum wages on employment, wages, non-wage benefits and a variety of additional economic outcomesin a given economy. Given that almost all developing countries (and indeed developed countries) have some sort of mandatory minimum wage laws, this remains a key area for empirical research. We explore in this seminar series, the developing country literature which tries to estimate the impact of minimum wage laws on employment, poverty and inequality. The seminal work in this area though, remains that of Card and Krueger (1994) on the fast-food industry in the USA, and the seminar will be anchored methodologically around this work.

    The second part of the seminar series involves attempting to understand in greater detail the relationship between minimum wage promulgation and the responses of employers, employees and government to such laws. In doing so, we focus explicitly here on minimum wage compliance. We hope to develop a unique measure of minimum wage non-compliance, drawn from the poverty literature, whilst also then presenting some of the early global results for such a measure. The seminar will then provide an analytical discussion of the various factors which may explain and predict violation of the law, with factors such as firm size, local unemployment rates and degree of informality – all being relevant. We conclude with a discussion of an appropriate econometric specification of such models of minimum wage violation.

II: Topics Covered
    The topics to be covered in what is essentially a two-part series of lectures are the following:

Part A: The Economic Impact of Minimum Wages
• Global Evidence on the Impact of Minimum Wages
• Brazil: A Case Study of A Virtuous Minimum Wage Policy?
• A Theoretical Model of the Minimum Wage-Employment Trade-off
• Modelling The Effect of Minimum Wages: Econometric Approaches
• An Application of Minimum Wage Impacts: The Case of South Africa
• Alternative Policy Frameworks for Minimum Wage Setting

Part B: Enforcement of the Minimum Wage: Theory and Evidence
• Minimum Wage Violation: A Class of Violation Measures
• Global Evidence on Minimum Wage Violation
• The Determinants of Minimum Wage Violation
• Modelling Minimum Wage Violation: Econometric Challenges


III: Core Readings
Bhorat,H, R.Kanbur and N.Mayet (2013)The Impact of Sectoral Minimum Wage Laws on Employment, Wages, and Hours of Work in South Africa. IZA Journal of Labor and Development, 2(1) January. Available from http://www.izajold.com/content/2/1/1/abstract.
Bhorat,H, R.Kanbur and B.Stanwix (2014) Estimatingthe Impact Of Minimum Wages OnEmployment,Wages, and non-wage Benefits:The Case Of Agriculture In South Africa. American Journal of Agricultural Economics. June: 1-18.
Alaniz,EK,Terrell&T.Gindling The impact of minimum wages on wages, work and poverty in Nicaragua. Labour Economics, forthcoming.
Card,D and A.Krueger (1994), "Minimum Wages and Employment: A Case Study of the Fast-Food Industry in New Jersey and Pennsylvania." American Economic Review. Vol. 84, No. 5 (December), pp. 772-93.
Terrell,K&T.Gindling (2007) The effects of multiple minimum wages throughout the labor market: The case of Costa Rica. Labour Economics. 14 485–511
Ashenfelter,O and R.S. Smith (1979), Compliance with the minimum wage law, Journal of Political Economy, April 1979, 2, pp. 333-350
Bhorat.H, R.Kanbur&N.Mayet (2011) Estimating the Causal Effect of Enforcement on Minimum Wage Compliance: The Case of South Africa. Review of Development Economics(Special Issue: Informality, Illegality and Enforcement.) 16(4):608-623. October 2012
Bhorat.H, R.Kanbur&N.Mayet (2013) A Note on Measuring the Depth of Minimum Wage Violation, Forthcoming 2013 in Labour: Review of Labour Economics and Industrial Relations.
Ronconi.L (2010). Enforcement and Compliance With Labor Regulations in Argentinia. Industrial and Labor Relations Review. Vol 63 (4). July. 719-736.
Weil,D (2005) Public Enforcement/Private Monitoring: Evaluating A New Approach To Regulating The Minimum Wage. Industrial and Labor Relations Review. Vol 58(2). January. 238-257
Additional Readings
Fields,G&R.Kanbur (2007) Minimum wages and poverty with income-sharing. Journal of Economic Inequality 5:135–147
Lemos, S (2007)Minimum Wage Effects across the Private and Public Sectors in Brazil, Journal of Development Studies,Vol. 43, No. 4, 700–720, May.
Neumark,DW.Cunningham&L.Siga (2006) The effects of the minimum wage in Brazil on the Distribution of Family Incomes: 1996–2001. Journal of Development Economics. 80. 136– 159
Basu.A, N.Chau& R. Kanbur (2010) Turning a Blind Eye: Costly Enforcement, Credible Commitment and Minimum Wage Laws, Economic Journal, Vol. 120, March, pp. 244-269.
M.E. Gallagher&S.Jing (2010) Participatory Legislation and Bottom--Up Enforcement of Chinese Labor Laws: A Pathway to Implementation?Paper presented at Conference "Enforcement, Evasion and Informality: Theory and Practice", Michigan University.
Ronconi. L (2010) Globalization, Domestic Institutions and Enforcement of Labor Law: Evidence from Latin America. Paper presented at Conference "Enforcement, Evasion and Informality: Theory and Practice", Michigan University.
Strobl, E. and Walsh, F. (2003), "Minimum Wages and Compliance: The Case of Trinidad and Tobago," Economic Development and Cultural Change, Vol. 51, No. 2, pp. 427-450.