Virginia Tsoukatou | Searcharxiv

arXiv2020

Examining the correlation of the level of wage inequality with labor market institutions

Technological change is responsible for major changes in the labor market. One of the offspring of technological change is the SBTC, which is for many economists the leading cause of the increasing wage inequality. However, despite that the technological change affected similarly the majority of the developed countries, nevertheless, the level of the increase of wage inequality wasn't similar. Following the predictions of the SBTC theory, the different levels of inequality could be due to varying degrees of skill inequality between economies, possibly caused by variations in the number of skilled workers available. However, recent research shows that the difference mentioned above can explain a small percentage of the difference between countries. Therefore, most of the resulting inequality could be due to the different ways in which the higher level of skills is valued in each labor market. The position advocated in this article is that technological change is largely given for all countries without much scope to reverse. Therefore, in order to illustrate the changes in the structure of wage distribution that cause wage inequality, we need to understand how technology affects labor market institutions.In this sense, the pay inequality caused by technological progress is not a phenomenon we passively accept. On the contrary, recognizing that the structure and the way labor market institutions function is largely influenced by the way institutions respond to technological change, we can understand and maybe reverse this underlying wage inequality.

econ.GN↗

arXiv2019

Examination of the Correlation between Working Time Reduction and Employment

In recent years, it has been debated whether a reduction in working hours would be a viable solution to tackle the unemployment caused by technological change. The improvement of existing production technology is gradually being seen to reduce labor demand. Although this debate has been at the forefront for many decades, the high and persistent unemployment encountered in the European Union has renewed interest in implementing this policy in order to increase employment. According to advocates of reducing working hours, this policy will increase the number of workers needed during the production process, increasing employment. However, the contradiction expressed by advocates of working time reduction is that the increase in labor costs will lead to a reduction in business activity and ultimately to a reduction in demand for human resources. In this article, we will attempt to answer the question of whether reducing working hours is a way of countering the potential decline in employment due to technological change. In order to answer this question, the aforementioned conflicting views will be examined. As we will see during our statistical examination of the existing empirical studies, the reduction of working time does not lead to increased employment and cannot be seen as a solution to the long-lasting unemployment.

econ.GN↗