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With the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994, Mexico entered a bilateral free trade agreement which not only lowered its own tariffs on imports but also lowered tariffs on its exports to the United States. We find that women’s relative wage increased, particularly during the period of liberalization. Both between and within-industry shifts also favored female workers. With regards to between-industry shifts, tariff reductions expanded sectors that were initially female intensive. With regards to within-industry shifts, we find a positive association between reductions in export tariffs (U.S. tariffs on Mexican goods) and hiring of women in skilled blue-collar occupations. Finally, we find suggestive evidence that household bargaining power shifted in favor of women. Expenditures shifted from goods associated with male preference, such as men’s clothing and tobacco and alcohol, to those associated with female preference such as women’s clothing and education.

This purpose of this paper to examine how profit sharing depends on the underlying profitability of firms. More precisely, motivated by theoretical research on fair wages and unionized labor markets, profit sharing is estimated for six different profitability categories: positive, increasing, positive and increasing, negative, decreasing and negative or decreasing.

The paper exploits a high-quality linked employer–employee data set covering the universe of Finnish workers and firms. Endogeneity of profitability and self-selection of firms in different profitability categories are accounted for by an instrumental variables approach. The panel-structure of the data is used to control for unobserved heterogeneity (spell and individual fixed effects).

Profits are shared if firms are profitable or become more profitable. The wage-profit elasticity varies between 0.03 and 0.13 in such firms. However, profits are not shared if firms make losses or become less profitable. There is no downward wage adjustment.

Because of the instrumental variables approach the question of external validity arises. Further empirical research on profit sharing with an explicit focus on firm profitability is warranted. The results of the paper indicate a connection between rent sharing and wage rigidity, as suggested by union and fair wage theory.

This is the first paper to consistently estimate the extent of profit sharing depending on the underlying profitability of firms.

The purpose of this paper is to examine which forms of compensation are more efficient at affecting employee attitudes, thus extending efficiency wage theory from wage-based compensation to profit sharing and stock-based compensation.

Three models of efficiency wage theory were tested: shirking, turnover and gift exchange. The effects of those three modes of compensation (wages, profit sharing and stock) were contrasted for the three models of efficiency wage theory.

The findings were that raising wages is the most efficient form of compensation in the turnover and shirking models, while in the gift exchange model profit sharing and stock-based compensation may function like efficiency wages.

This is the first study of this particular issue.

To measure the effects of work‐sharing arrangements on participants’ subsequent labor market outcomes in Taiwan such as full‐time employment rates, working hours of women and men and the difference in scale effect and effect of substitution between hours and employment for women and men.

Using the data from Manpower Utilization Survey, we applied the differences‐in‐differences estimation method to test the effects of work‐sharing arrangements on working hours, wage and employment. Multinomial logit was used to measure the effects of work sharing on full‐time employment. In order to correct the simultaneity and selectivity problems, we followed the Heckman two‐stage selection procedures to solve the selection bias, and used weighted least squares to solve heteroskedasticity in the wage and hour equations. The instrumental variable (IV) method was used to avoid simultaneity bias in the hour equation.

This paper found the restrictions enforced by law on working hours have negative effects on employees’ working conditions in certain industries in Taiwan. After controlling the working hours, we found the wages paid to women and men have increased subsequent to the enforcement of law. However, compared to men the net wage earned by women has increased to a lesser extent. It was further observed that with enactment of work‐sharing law, the employment rate of women has considerably declined since 2001. Main findings assimilating the results for hour, wage and full‐time employment suggest that a country like Taiwan (with work‐sharing arrangements implemented by law) has witnessed a smaller gap between women's and men's working time and wages during 2001‐2002. However, for the period of 2003‐2006 the amendment that introduced compressed work week brought a larger gender gap in working hours as well as wages. In other words, the implementation of work‐sharing law has reduced the gender gap in hours and wages during 2001‐2002, but the prevailing gender gap in hours as well as wages has worsened after the introduction of compressed work week during 2003‐2006.

An in‐depth analysis of labor market effects of work‐sharing law will be useful for the policymakers, especially those interested in understanding the impact of their policies on labor market outcomes like wage, hour and employment, and finding out whether policies were effective at reducing the gender gap in given outcomes.

Findings of the present study should not only provide the broad lessons for policymakers in Taiwan, but the results that have emerged from the country case study may be referred by other Asian countries who want to bring a change in working and employment conditions for their labor by implementing work‐sharing law.

The aim of this paper is to examine rent sharing under a heterogeneous workforce using Finnish linked employer‐employee data in 1987‐1998. Rent sharing is one component of the empirically estimated firm‐effect and depends on the sensitivity of firm‐level payments to quasi‐rents. It is shown that rent sharing moderates other forms of firm‐level wages. Thus, the lower the starting wages, the higher rent sharing will be. Alternatively, in many firms new workers are attracted to the job by paying high entry wages, while these new workers do not obtain the full level of rent sharing in the first years of service. Highly educated workers are the main targets of rent sharing and rent sharing is more common in R&D‐intensive firms. All this shows the importance of human capital accumulation and flexible technology in explaining rent sharing. This can also explain why rent sharing is targeted at experienced workers in R&D‐intensive firms. In non‐R&D‐intensive firms, job search is also of importance. Rent sharing is more common when highly educated workers have flexible labour supply.

The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence of international rent sharing in multinational enterprises. It looks at changes in rent sharing before and after the acquisition of a company by a foreign entity, and assesses the role of target and acquirer profitability in the wage setting process for the target firm. It therefore contributes to the evaluation of the impact of a form of globalization (inward foreign direct investment (FDI)) onto wages.

The authors use a unique firm level longitudinal dataset of M & As in Belgium between 1998 and 2010. The authors construct a micro-level dataset containing takeover and accounting information for target and acquiring firms. The empirical set up permits to net the estimates from selection effects in the choice of target firm, using propensity score matching and a difference-in-difference approach.

The authors find evidence that the deal does not significantly affect the degree of domestic rent sharing, but it enables international rent sharing. The authors qualify the results in terms of the acquirer’s location, industry link with the target and controlling stake. Further robustness specifications include different profits and controls, and a comparison with a sample of domestic acquisitions.

The sample of matches for acquired firms is constructed using propensity scores, which may not perfectly capture the differences between targeted and non-targeted companies. Although estimates should be net of selection effects, other sources of endogeneity may still make the estimates inconsistent.

Updating the discussion on the labor market consequences of globalization, and on foreign takeovers in particular.

The discussion on international takeover should take into account not only the extensive margin (i.e. labor adjustments) but also salaries. The authors argue that through a precise channel (rent sharing) international takeovers of domestic companies may benefit the domestic labor force.

The dataset was constructed for the purposes of this analysis; rent sharing is tested in a takeover scenario for the first time, thus avoiding selection biases.

The authors' work aims to identify the employer-specific drivers of the college (or university) wage gap, which has been identified as one of the major determinants of the dynamics of overall wage and income inequality in the past decades. The authors focus on three employer-level features that can be associated with asymmetries in the employment relation orientation adopted for college and non-college-educated employees: (1) size, (2) the share of standard employment and (3) the pervasiveness of incentive pay schemes.

The authors' establishment-level analysis (data from the Basic Survey on Wage Structure (BSWS), 2005–2018) focusses on Japan, an economy characterised by many unique economic and institutional features relevant to the aims of the authors' analysis. The authors use an adjusted measure of firm-specific college wage premium, which is not biased by confounding individual and establishment-level factors and reflects unobservable characteristics of employees that determine the payment of a premium. The authors' empirical methods account for the complexity of the relationships they investigate, and the authors test their baseline outcomes with econometric approaches (propensity score methods) able to address crucial identification issues related to endogeneity and reverse causality.

The authors' findings indicate that larger establishment size, a larger share of regular workers and more pervasive implementation of IPSs for college workers tend to increase the college wage gap once all observable workers, job and establishment characteristics are controlled for. This evidence corroborates the authors' hypotheses that a larger establishment size, a higher share of regular workers and a more developed set-up of performance pay schemes for college workers are associated with a better capacity of employers to attract and keep highly educated employees with unobservable characteristics that justify a wage premium above average market levels. The authors provide empirical evidence on how three relevant establishment-level characteristics shape the heterogeneity of the (adjusted) college wage observed across organisations.

The authors' contribution to the existing knowledge is threefold. First, the authors combine the economics and management/organisation literature to develop new insights that underpin the authors' testable empirical hypotheses. This enables the authors to shed light on employer-level drivers of wage differentials (size, workforce composition, implementation of performance-pay schemes) related to many structural, institutional and strategic dimensions. The second contribution lies in the authors' measure of the “adjusted” college wage gap, which is calculated on the component of individual wages that differs between observationally identical workers in the same establishment. As such, the metric captures unobservable workers' characteristics that can generate a wage premium/penalty. Third, the authors provide empirical evidence on how three relevant establishment-level characteristics shape the heterogeneity of the (adjusted) college wage observed across organisations.

Estimates are developed of the major macroeconomic aggregates – wages, land rents, interest rates, prices, factor shares, sectoral shares in output and employment, and real wages – for England by decade between 1209 and 2008. The efficiency of the economy in the years 1209–2008 is also estimated. One finding is that the growth of real wages in the Industrial Revolution era and beyond was faster than the growth of output per person. Indeed until recently the greatest recipient of modern growth in England has been unskilled workers. The data also create a number of puzzles, the principal one being the very high levels of output and efficiency estimated for England in the medieval era. These data are thus inconsistent with the general notion that there was a period of Smithian growth between 1300 and 1800 which preceded the Industrial Revolution, as expressed in such recent works as De Vries (2008).

This paper reviews economic studies on the effects of various aspects of finance on labour market outcomes.

The paper is a systematic literature review that reviews the weight of the evidence on the relationships between specific elements of finance and labour outcomes. The review is divided into three major sections: (1) job quantity and job quality; (2) distributional effects; and (3) resilience and adaptability.

Finance interacts with labour market institutions to jointly determine labour outcomes. Firm financial structures influence their labour practices – highly leveraged firms show greater employment volatility during cyclical fluctuations, and leverage strengthens firm bargaining power in labour negotiations. Bank deregulation has mixed impacts on labour depending upon the state of prior bank regulations and labour markets. Leveraged buyouts tend to dampen acquired-firm job growth as they pursue labour productivity gains. The shareholder value movement may contribute to short-termism among corporate managers, which can divert funds away from firm capital accumulation toward financial markets, and crowd out productive investment. Declining wage shares of national income in most OECD countries since 1990 may be driven in part by financial globalisation. The financial sector contributes to rising income concentration near the top of the distribution in developed countries. The availability of finance is associated with increased reallocation of labour, which may either enhance or impede productivity growth. Finally, rising interest rate environments and homeowners with mortgage balances that exceed their home's value may reduce labour mobility rates.

This review contributes to the understanding of the effects of finance on labour by reviewing and synthesising a large volume of literature.