labour studies 280

Question 1

what is a stock variable?

Answer 1

a stock is a quantity that is measured at a given point in time. ie I own 40 bananas today.

Question 2

what is a flow variable?

Answer 2

A variable whose quality is measured per unit of time. ie I only had to work for 1 hour to earn all my bananas.

Question 3

as far as employment status goes, what are the three categories that the working age population can be in?

Answer 3

employed, unemployed or not in the labour force.

Question 4

define what it means to be unemployed

Answer 4

the person be available for work yet have none and have actively looked for work in the past 4 weeks

Question 5

What are some assumptions that we may make about goods or workers for certain theories (may make the theories not work if not true)

Answer 5

That they are homogenous or the same

Question 6

What is different about the labour market vs goods market?

Answer 6

workers care who they supply their labour to
it is highly regulated (min wage etc)
labour services are inseperable from seller (ie cant own the person)
fairness matters
incentives are important
working condition and culture matter
workers and jobs are very diverse
very difficult to get good information (who is a good worker vs who is a bad worker)

Question 7

a binding minimum wage will create what?

Answer 7

excess supply of workers ie unemployment

Question 8

What is the trend in labour market compensation?

Answer 8

workers who perform routine jobs are earning less than before while workers performing non-routine earn more

Question 9

What is the history of unionization in Canada?

Answer 9

in 1944 legistlation was more pro union and therefore more unions started sprouting up. before that legistlation was neutral towards unions and before the 1870s they were actually illegal. in 67 public sector became unionized and it the 70s unionization peaked before dropping. It was 26% in 2005.

Question 10

how is collective bargaining in europe?

Answer 10

Workers have roughly similar or slightly higher unionization rates but most of all workers are covered under some collective agreement

Question 11

minimum wage and unionization help reduce income inequality, T or F?

Answer 11

True.

Question 12

What happens to total wages of workers when a binding minimum wage is in place?

Answer 12

Depends on elasticity of demand. If the elasticity is greater than 1 it will reduce employment more than wages but if it is less than one it will increase wage more than unemployment

Question 13

Does the effect of minimum wage on employment depend on the elasticity of supply?

Answer 13

No. Only the deadweight loss depends on the elasticity of employment

Question 14

elasticity above 1 is considered..?

Answer 14

elastic

Question 15

elasticity below 1 is considered…?

Answer 15

inelastic

Question 16

which part of a straight line is considered inelastic/elastic/unitary elastic

Answer 16

The top part of a straight line is elastic the bottom is inelastic and the middle is unitary elastic

Question 17

For men what were some shifts in the labour market during the 70s to the 80s? and what did it cause

Answer 17

Unionization fell, minimum wage fell, This increase wage inequality

Question 18

What has been the trend in labour force participation rate?

Answer 18

Has been increasing rapidly since the 1960’s but has slowed down recently to about 2% in the 90s

Question 19

What are some factors that increase the labour force participation rate?

Answer 19

immigration, high fertility rate.

Question 20

What are some factors that decrease the labour force participation rate?

Answer 20

withdrawls(early retirement, to go to school, health issues etc), emmigration, high mortality rate

Question 21

Who is not included in the labour force?

Answer 21

members of the military,institutional residents, residents of native reserves, citizens of Yukon, Nunavut and the northwest territories.

Question 22

What is the trend in immigration in Canada?

Answer 22

Since 1950’s lots of immigrants have come. About 1% of the population per year originally and slowing down to about 0.75% today (though still roughly about the same number of total immigrants come each year)

Question 23

Why is there a large increase in the labour force participation?

Answer 23

Increase in women participation in labour force.

Question 24

did wage inequality increase in women from the 79 to 88s?

Answer 24

Yes. Women gained substantially higher paying jobs during that time

Question 25

What were the major reasons for change in womens compensation from 79 to 88?

Answer 25

lowering minimum wage lowerd compensation and changes in individual attributes increased them

Question 26

What is the estimate for employment in Canada of minimum wage earners when minimum wage increases 10%?

Answer 26

employment of min wage workers drops by about 1-3%

Question 27

What is the underutilization of labour mean?

Answer 27

workers who are willing to work at prevailing wage rates are unable to do so

Question 28

what causes the over/underestimation of underutilization of labour?

Answer 28

People who say they are looking for work but will for example only apply to one posting/month leads to overestimation and people who are working less than they would like to be causes underestimation of underutilization. Workers with weak attacthment to labour force make also make it difficult to estimate (could lead to over underestimates such as a student working sporadically throughout year or when school is not in session.

Question 29

Why is comparing union wages after worker characteristics are taken into consideration still not good enough depiction of whole picture?

Answer 29

Have to look at productivity and survivability of firms to find out the real impacts of unionization

Question 30

What are some other impacts of unions?

Answer 30

non wage benefits make up greater portion of compensation, less variance in earnings, seniority more likely to be factor in decisions of advancement/management etc, quit rates lower and effects of cyclical swings higher.

Question 31

when a union is implemented what does the effect of job less depend on?

Answer 31

elasticity of supply and demand

Question 32

What is the history of UI?

Answer 32

Very low amounts when first rolled out in 30s increased to too much in the 70s (good for a year, 66% of wage etc) rolled back in early 90s to what it is today at 57% of wage good for 6 months

Question 33

what are some complaints about UI in Canada?

Answer 33

UI is not taxed extra against firms and sectors that are more likely to use it, unlike US where if a firm has a high UI claim rate it is taxed higher.

Question 34

What is one outcome of the US system of UI compared to the Canadian system?

Answer 34

US system does not induce transfer of payments from stable employment sectors to unstable employment sectors