Wage Labor Research Articles

The Widening Role of the Digital Economy on Regional Income Differences - Evidence from the National Pilot Zone for Innovative Development of the Digital Economy

A growing body of research suggests that the digital economy may create opportunities to combat income inequality. However, these studies have focused more on the difference between countryside and city areas, neglecting the intervene of the state, regional differences and labour market in digital economy. Therefore, this paper collects data on the average income of different cities and the average wage of their digital economy workforce, and uses the Theil Index, DID and mediated-effects methods to study the setup of the National Pilot Zone for the Innovative Development of the Digital Economy as well as the status of income equality within the pilot zone. The paper also analyses heterogeneity based on geographic location, and uses a mediation effect model to measure the role of the income of digital economy practitioners in the impact of the National Pilot Zone for the Innovative Development of the Digital Economy on inter-regional income disparities. Study finds that the pilot zone widens the inter-regional income gap. This result is caused by the uneven spatial distribution between regions and industries. Labour wages in the relevant industries are also an important factor mediating the effect between developing the digital economy and the elimination of income inequality.

Two birds, one stone: minimum wage and child labor

PurposeThis paper investigates the impact of quasi-exogenous and substantial increases in the minimum wage on child labor outcomes in Türkiye. The study aims to provide empirical evidence on how minimum wage policies affect child labor outcomes in a developing country context, with a focus on gender and age differences. It seeks to understand whether minimum wage increases lead to a reduction in child labor and whether the impact is different for various demographic groups.Design/methodology/approachThe research employs a difference-in-differences methodology using data from the 2012 and 2019 Child Labor Force Survey in Türkiye. The treatment group consists of children from households with minimum wage earners, while the control group comprises children from other households. Various labor market outcomes are analyzed, and robustness checks are performed.FindingsOur findings indicate that while the overall effect of minimum wage increases on child labor is statistically insignificant, there are notable heterogeneous impacts across different demographic groups and employment sectors. Specifically, we observe a significant reduction in the employment probability of girls under the age of 15 and unpaid family workers. Additionally, the likelihood of younger children being wage earners decreases, and the minimum wage increase reduces employment in the agriculture and services sectors for certain subgroups. The impact is also more limited for children in single-adult-worker households.Social implicationsThese results underscore the varying effects of minimum wage policies on child labor and highlight the importance of considering demographic and sectoral differences in policy formulation. Policymakers should complement such policies with income-generating programs and targeted education initiatives to address child labor issues more comprehensively and sustainably.Originality/valueThis study fills a critical gap in the limited international literature on the causal effects of minimum wage policies on child labor incidence. One notable exception, Menon and van der Meulen Rodgers (2018) have explored the impact of minimum wage on child labor in India using regional variation, our study uniquely analyzes the effects at the household level in Türkiye. This approach provides valuable insights into how minimum wage changes affect child labor outcomes in a developing economy context with a high prevalence of minimum wage earners. It also contributes to the broader economic understanding of child labor and household income dynamics.

Exploring economic assimilation of immigrants and their descendants in France: recent insights

ABSTRACT This paper examines the labour market performances of immigrants and their descendants in France by applying a series of empirical Tobit II models on a recent TeO2 database. Our work questions the labour market participation and wage disparities of these groups compared to native-born individuals by controlling different individual attributes, such as gender and educational level, and job characteristics, such as the firm size or the type of job. It also introduces information on ethnic origins and location. Our study provides crucial insights into the labour market performances of immigrants and their descendants in France. It reveals that disparities manifest primarily in labour market participation rather than wages. It also underscores that high-skilled workers’ wages do not converge as immigrants consistently yield lower returns on education than natives. Our findings underscore the heterogeneity within the immigrant group based on origins criteria. The performances of immigrants with African and Northern-African origins are lower than those of other groups of immigrants.

Women’s care work activity as unpaid and continuous labour

Work, depending on who performs it and in what context, is burdened with various symbolic and social meanings. An interesting example of these dependencies is the issue of women’s unpaid caregiving work. It is crucial for thefunctioning of late capitalist, neoliberal society, yet it remains marginalised in dominant discourses - to the extent that it is not accounted for in GDP calculations in Poland; it is systematically unseen and undervalued by the state. I analyse the issue of such work through my field research, carried out from July 2021 to February 2022, on the eating habits of retired women in Warsaw. I conducted 39 interviews with retirees, during which the topic of food served as a means of understanding the stories of their lives, in which wage labour intertwined with household efforts. The lives of the interviewees were filled with the experience of constant “busyness” - many of them spoke of free time as regained or obtained for the first time in retirement. In the article, I analyse the role of unpaid caregivingwork in their lives, what significance it had for them in the past and present, and how it was embedded in the surrounding network of relationships.

Tariffs and Foreign Direct Investment in a Dynamic North–South Model

AbstractThis paper examines how import tariffs by a developed country (the North) and a developing country (the South) affect innovation and foreign direct investment (FDI) using a quality ladder model. We show that a Northern import tariff raises the relative wage of Northern labor, but impedes innovation and FDI. This may worsen Northern welfare. By contrast, a Southern import tariff raises the relative wage of Southern labor and promotes innovation and FDI. This can improve Southern welfare. These imply that the South has a stronger incentive than the North to impose an import tariff, which is consistent with actual observation.

Markups and Inequality

Abstract We characterize optimal product market policy in an unequal economy in which firm ownership is concentrated and markups increase with firm market shares. We study the problem of a utilitarian regulator who designs revenue-neutral interventions in the product market. We show that optimal policy increases product market concentration. This is because policies that encourage larger producers to expand improve allocative efficiency, increase the demand for labor and equilibrium wages. We derive these results both in a static Mirrleesian setting in which we impose no constraints on the shape of interventions, as well as in a dynamic economy with wealth accumulation. In our dynamic economy optimal policy reduces wealth and income inequality by redistributing market share and profits from medium-sized businesses, which are primarily owned by relatively rich entrepreneurs, to larger diversified corporate firms.

Environmental shocks and agriculture: implications of floods on labor market outcomes

Abstract Floods often displace people and exacerbate their access to finance, affecting the livelihood of daily wage workers in least-developed countries. In August 2017, Nepal experienced the heaviest rainfall in more than 60 years, severely flooding about 80 per cent of the land in the southern part of the country. Using the two-way fixed effects approach and an event study design, we evaluate the impact of severe flooding on the wages of agricultural workers. We show that the 2017 floods resulted in a 9–10 per cent decrease in cash wages among agricultural households while in-kind wages of agricultural laborers increased significantly after the floods, implying that in-kind wages helped mitigate the adverse effects of floods on cash wages. We also investigate changes in assistance, loan-seeking behavior, loan repayment, and collection behavior as mechanisms leading to the risk-mitigating behavior by farmers.

Dissolving boundaries: work, activity, and voluntariness in digitized capitalism

ABSTRACT The article focuses on voluntariness as a mode of restructuring work in 21st century digitalized capitalism. What can be observed is a blurring of the boundaries between work, reproduction, leisure and engagement. We pursue the thesis that this transformation in the ‘nature’ of work corresponds to a (newly emerging) ‘mixed-activity economy’ in which people, on the one hand, create economic value in the sphere of consumption or leisure. On the other hand, reproductive requirements and economic necessities in everyday work and life can be flexibly linked through time-flexible platform work. In any case, the forms of corporate value creation and access to human productivity are changing radically insofar as they are no longer limited to classic wage labor alone. The invocation of voluntarism plays a key legitimizing role in this transformation. Based on a theoretical reconstruction of the concept of voluntariness, we bring together new forms of value creation through appropriation of resources outside of wage labor and the systematic analysis of voluntariness as a currently significant mode of action and governance in the digital economy.

The Myth of the Classless Society: Henry Carey and the Anti-Labor Origins of U.S. Political Economy (1820s–1830s)

Abstract The essay argues that the idea of the United States as a classless society was never a faithful representation of the U.S. socioeconomic reality, but constituted a myth elaborated since the 1830s by the first generation of U.S. economists to oppose the insubordination of Northern white workers, their mobilization through strikes, their politicization of class, and their critique of wage labor. It was precisely to counter the workers’ discourse, the essay maintains, that the first U.S. economists, most importantly Henry Charles Carey (1793–1879), developed an ideological representation of U.S. society as a classless structure devoid of fixed boundaries, in which industrious individuals could improve their condition through labor and in which social positions reflected a scale of talents and merits. By studying the early writings of Carey, but also of Theodore Sedgwick (1780–1839), Francis Wayland (1796–1865), Henry Vethake (1791–1866), Alonzo Potter (1800–1865), and Francis Lieber (1800–1872), the essay shows how economists used the myth of the classless society to scientifically legitimize the coming of capitalism to the United States, as well as to delegitimize class conflict. This anti-labor reaction, the essay argues, marked the very emergence of political economy in the United States as a science aimed at justifying the order of society through a mystified representation of its power relations, while the myth of the classless society would persist as a fundamental ideological pillar in the legitimation and naturalization of American capitalism.

Civilising subject(s): drawing pedagogy in Bombay in the age of industrial capitalism and empire

ABSTRACT This article charts a critical history of drawing, as it was taught within “general” schooling in colonial Bombay (now Mumbai), beyond the artisanal workshop, art, and industrial schools. Rather than children’s creative or subjective expression as it is commonly seen today, drawing’s presence in the school curriculum was a sign of the efforts being taken to create a workforce suitable for industrial capitalism, in Britain and in India. Analysing archival sources, and situating them within the broader discourses around colonialism, work, and the industrial subject, the article points out that when drawing was taught in Bombay it was hamstrung by issues metropolitan in origin, viz. course design, inconsistent pedagogic vision, lack of financial outlay as well as local conditions of low industrialisation. Similar problems plagued drawing in Britain. However, colonial power relations held Indian teachers and school-goers responsible for drawing’s “failures” in addressing the crisis of technical skilling and employment generation in India, while in Britain the critique was directed towards the system. Drawing – despite these “failures” – came to be valued as a practice necessary in and of itself. Drawing, the article contends, offered an embodied and verifiable response to wage labour, as seen in its unfolding in the colony, i.e. a moral technology geared towards wage labour.

Effect of automation of routine and non-routine tasks on labour demand and wages

Artificial intelligence and associated technology advances have progressively diffused from routine tasks to non-routine tasks, causing disruptions in the labour market. In this work, we study the effect of automation on the labour market outcomes for low-skilled and high-skilled workers. We use the agent-based modelling approach to model firms and workers as rational agents with defined objective functions, endowments, and interactions. Using extensive simulations, we analyse the emergent phenomenon of employment levels and wage inequality in the labour market under varying scenarios. The key findings of our simulations indicate that automation of routine tasks increases wage inequality, whereas automation of non-routine tasks reduces it. Based on our results, we propose policy prescriptions regarding the job categories in which automation can be introduced for societal benefits, the skill enhancement programme needed for the workers, and guidelines on the redeployment of labour displaced through automation.

Analyzing the Intersection of Labor Market Dynamics and Economic Growth: A Bibliometric Study

This study conducts a bibliometric analysis to examine the intersection of labor market dynamics and economic growth, focusing on key themes, trends, and emerging areas of research. Using VOSviewer, we analyze 980 publications from 1959 to 2024, identifying central themes such as "labour market," "human capital," and "economic development," which play critical roles in shaping the relationship between workforce dynamics and economic growth. The findings highlight how technological advancements, globalization, and demographic shifts have influenced labor market structures, wage dynamics, and industry-specific developments over time. Emerging topics, such as the relationship between labor markets and energy consumption, point to the growing importance of sustainability in economic discussions. The results provide valuable insights into the evolution of labor market studies and offer directions for future research, particularly in the context of green energy transitions and workforce adaptability in an age of rapid technological change. This analysis contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the complex interactions between labor market behavior and economic performance.

Responses to Livelihood Precarity in Dryland India: Diversifying Out of Agrarian Distress

ABSTRACTScholars of critical agrarian political economy see agriculture in liberalization‐era India as a form of disguised unemployment, part of wider agrarian distress. This article engages with literature differentiating the class/caste responses to agrarian and non‐farm livelihood distress in India to understand the different diversification options that households have available. The article draws on research carried out in a village in dryland, Bt cotton‐dependent Telangana in south India to show these variegated practices. While Other Backward Caste households invested in livestock to cope with heavy Bt cotton investments and losses, Scheduled Caste households focused on the educated rural youth, relying on their non‐farm wage labour in jobs such as taxi driving. Despite rural–urban migration and higher levels of education, under/unemployment remains persistent for rural youth. In this context, Ryuthu Bandhu, a cash transfer programme pioneered in Telangana in 2018, proved crucial for rural livelihood survival in the study village, contributing up to 22 per cent of annual household incomes. However, negative average net incomes across all households show that attempts to diversify out of distress have been largely unsuccessful.

Socio-cultural Factors Influencing Women Empowerment: A Cross-sectional Study Among an Ex-criminal Tribe in West Bengal, India

This article critically examines whether socio-cultural factors like education, family type and earning opportunity influence women’s decision-making capacity, and thereby, their empowerment or not. It is established through earlier research that women are the most disempowered section in our society, and tribal women, especially the women from ex-criminal tribes, are relatively more deprived than others, and their decision-making ability is a significant criterion that reflects their empowerment status. The present cross-sectional study was carried out among 110 women of the Lodha, an ex-criminal tribe in India. The data of the earner women were compared with those of a control group who were not involved in any earning pursuit. The findings show that women’s participation in self-help groups (SHGs) and/or their involvement as wage laborers effectively enhance their decision-making ability within family, and education, family type and earning opportunity are significantly associated with the level of participation in decision-making.

The decline and transformation of smallholders in Chinese agriculture: national trends

ABSTRACT Using data from official statistical sources and a nationally representative survey, we find that since 2001, China’s agricultural labor force has declined by over 50 percent—a loss of over 200 million smallholders, probably the largest in human history. This trend is the most pronounced in livestock sectors: from 2012 to 2021, 62.5 million smallholder units have disappeared. The 150 million remaining smallholders are mostly commodity producers, participating widely in commodity relations to access agrochemicals, machinery, rental land, and wage labor to produce for markets. The ageing smallholder population also face challenges in intergenerational reproduction, which will accelerate its decline.

Analysis of Allocative Efficiency in Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Farming in the Batu Alam Industrial Area, Cirebon Regency

This research analyzes the efficiency of farming costs and the factors influencing rice farming costs. The research method used was descriptive quantitative with data collection techniques through surveys and interviews with 176 rice farmer respondents in the natural stone industrial area of Cirebon district. The analysis used is frontier cost analysis using frontier4.1 software using the Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) approach. This research shows that the average cost efficiency or allocative level in the natural stone industrial area is 0.20. The factor that influences the inefficiency of rice farming in natural stone industrial areas is age. Factors directly influencing farming costs are land area, urea, labor, rice selling price, land rental price, and labor wages.

Mujeres berracas: gendered work, geographies of exclusion, and rice farming in Tolima, Colombia

This article uses a Social Reproduction Theory (SRT) lens to illuminate the lived experiences of women in rice farming in rural Tolima, Colombia, by examining the gender division of labor, the devaluation of women’s work, and geographies of exclusion among farmers and farmworkers. Through the analysis of ethnographic findings, this paper argues that perceptions of women as either berracas [tough, badass, stubborn, and hardworking] or out of place legitimize the devaluation of women’s contributions to the political economy of rice. These gender dynamics create geographies of exclusion, shaping rural livelihoods and exacerbating disparities in resource access. This paper advances SRT’s understandings of agricultural wage labor, class differentiation, and how women navigate, resist, and shape their roles in agrarian communities.

Market power and wages: evidence from Brazil

PurposeThe paper examines the impact of market power on wages within the context of a developing country, focusing on Brazil.Design/methodology/approachWith access to matched employer–employee data from Brazil, we first characterized the evolution of the local labor market concentration (Municipality Herfindahl–Hirschman Index [HHI]). Then, we built a fixed-effect model with instrumental variables to verify the association between the local labor market concentration and wages. Finally, a difference-in-difference (DiD) was implemented to verify whether a merger transaction impacted the workers’ earnings in the Brazilian banking sector.FindingsThe paper’s findings suggest that there may be a negative relationship between market power and workers’ earnings.Originality/valueThis research conducted an in-depth investigation of the labor market power in a developing country. As far as we know, our work is the first to evaluate the extension of local concentration in Brazilian formal labor markets and to illustrate its evolution over the last decades. Additionally, when going through the effects of market concentration on wages, we use a new identification strategy that explores changes in the HHI that are caused by national trends in an industry as a source of exogenous variation. Finally, the last part of the paper assesses the effects of antitrust policy on the labor market, a kind of investigation that is still scarce.

Evolution of Labor Concepts and Feminist Perspectives

The study explores the historical evolution of labour from household-based manufacturing to wage-based industrial systems, examining how the definition of work has changed in modern economies. From an economic perspective, work is perceived as a good or service that is traded in markets based on supply and demand. Traditional definitions of work, which emphasize wage labour, are challenged by feminist viewpoints, which emphasize the underappreciation of unpaid care and domestic work. Women's social standing and economic empowerment are restricted by this devaluation, which upholds gender inequality. To look into women's employment and labour participation in Istanbul and Izmir, Turkey, the research uses a census technique and deliberate sampling. The results show that women's paid and unpaid labour is influenced by social, cultural, and economic factors such as family history, education, and occupational segregation. These factors also reveal gendered labour dynamics. The study concludes that labour must be redefined to encompass not only paid employment but also a wider range of activities and societal benefits. To advance gender equality and women's economic empowerment in the context of changing global economies, gender inequalities in labour definitions and regulations must be addressed.

A Novel Approach for Testing Fractional Cointegration in Panel Data Models with Fixed Effects

Fractional cointegration in time series data has been explored by several authors, but panel data applications have been largely neglected. A previous study of ours discovered that the Chen and Hurvich fractional cointegration test for time series was fairly robust to a moderate degree of heterogeneity across sections of the six tests considered. Therefore, this paper advances a customized version of the Chen and Hurvich methodology to detect cointegrating connections in panels with unobserved fixed effects. Specifically, we develop a test statistic that accommodates variation in the long-term cointegrating vectors and fractional cointegration parameters across observational units. The behavior of our proposed test is examined through extensive Monte Carlo experiments under various data-generating processes and circumstances. The findings reveal that our modified test performs quite well comparatively and can successfully identify fractional cointegrating relationships in panels, even in the presence of idiosyncratic disturbances unique to each cross-sectional unit. Furthermore, the proposed modified test procedure established the presence of long-run equilibrium between the exchange rate and labor wage of 36 countries’ agricultural markets.