The University of Massachusetts Amherst
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Skott Working Papers

Working paper: Cyclical patterns of employment, utilization, and profitability

The following working paper by Ben Zipperer and Peter Skott is now available on our website:

Cyclical patterns of employment, utilization, and profitability

Abstract

The interaction between income distribution, accumulation, employment and the utilization of capital is central to macroeconomic models in the ‘heterodox’ tradition. This paper examines the stylized pattern of these variables using US data for the period after 1948. We look at the trends and cycles in individual time series and examine the bivariate cycical patterns among the variables.

Categories
Skott Working Papers

Working paper: Employment and Distribution Effects

The following working paper by Fabian Slonimczyk and Peter Skott is available on our website:

Employment and Distribution Effects

Abstract
This paper analyzes the effects of the minimum wage on wage inequality, relative employment and over-education. Using an efficiencywage model we show that over-education can be generated endogenously and that an increase in the minimum wage can raise both total and low-skill employment, and produce a fall in inequality. Evidence from the US suggests that these theoretical results are empirically relevant. The over-education rate has been increasing and our regression analysis suggests that the decrease in the minimum wage may have led to a deterioration of the employment and relative wage of low-skill workers.