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A Test of Competitive Labor Market Theory: The Wage Structure among Care Assistants in the South of England

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  • Stephen Machin
  • Alan Manning

Abstract

This paper examines the structure of wages in a very specific labor market: care assistants in residential homes for the elderly on England's “sunshine coast.†This sector corresponds closely to economists' notion of what should be a competitive labor market, both because it has a large number of small firms undertaking a very homogeneous activity in a concentrated geographical area, and because the workers are neither unionized nor covered by any minimum wage legislation, so that there are effectively no external constraints on the wage-setting process. The authors find that the wage structure deviates in important respects from what would be expected in a competitive labor market. In particular, wage dispersion is small within firms, but large between firms; and the wage dispersion that is present does not seem to be closely related to workers' productivity-related characteristics. A test rejects the hypothesis that unobserved labor quality can explain these findings.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephen Machin & Alan Manning, 2004. "A Test of Competitive Labor Market Theory: The Wage Structure among Care Assistants in the South of England," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 57(3), pages 371-385, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:57:y:2004:i:3:p:371-385
    DOI: 10.1177/001979390405700303
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Datta, Nikhil & Machin, Stephen, 2024. "Government Contracting and Living Wages > Minimum Wages," IZA Discussion Papers 17117, IZA Network @ LISER.
    2. L. Matraeva & E. Vasiutina & S. Erokhin & O. Kaurova, 2018. "A Dynamic Model in the Labor Market: Reasons of Imbalances at the Transition Stage of the Economy," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(3), pages 206-217.
    3. Giupponi, Giulia & Machin, Stephen, 2022. "Company wage policy in a low-wage labor market," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 117983, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Gabriel Ahlfeldt & Duncan Roth & Tobias Seidel, 2018. "The Regional Effects of a National Minimum Wage," CESifo Working Paper Series 6924, CESifo.
    5. Michel Grignon & Yaw Owusu & Arthur Sweetman, 2013. "The international migration of health professionals," Chapters, in: Amelie F. Constant & Klaus F. Zimmermann (ed.), International Handbook on the Economics of Migration, chapter 4, pages 75-97, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Rizov, Marian & Croucher, Richard & Lange, Thomas, 2016. "The UK national minimum wage's impact on productivity," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 27(4), pages 819-835.
    7. Manning, Alan, 2011. "Imperfect Competition in the Labor Market," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 11, pages 973-1041, Elsevier.
    8. Mirko Draca & Stephen Machin & John Van Reenen, 2011. "Minimum Wages and Firm Profitability," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(1), pages 129-151, January.
    9. Ahlfeldt, Gabriel & Roth, Duncan & Seidel, Tobias, 2018. "The regional effects of Germany’s national minimum wage," CEPR Discussion Papers 13005, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Tim Butcher & Richard Dickens & Alan Manning, 2012. "Minimum Wages and Wage Inequality: Some Theory and an Application to the UK," CEP Discussion Papers dp1177, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    11. Michael Amior & Shmuel San, 2026. "Internal Pay Equity and the Quantity-Quality Trade-Off in Hiring," RFBerlin Discussion Paper Series 26052, ROCKWOOL Foundation Berlin (RFBerlin).
    12. Ahlfeldt, Gabriel M. & Roth, Duncan & Seidel, Tobias, 2018. "The regional effects of Germany’s national minimum wage," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 127-130.
    13. Pedro Portugal & Hugo Reis & Paulo Guimarães & Ana Rute Cardoso, 2023. "What lies behind returns to schooling: the role of labor market sorting and worker heterogeneity," Working Papers w202322, Banco de Portugal, Economics and Research Department.
    14. Andreas Georgiadis, 2013. "Efficiency Wages and the Economic Effects of the Minimum Wage: Evidence from a Low-Wage Labour Market," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 75(6), pages 962-979, December.
    15. Jill Rubery, 2013. "Public sector adjustment and the threat to gender equality," Chapters, in: Daniel Vaughan-Whitehead (ed.), Public Sector Shock, chapter 2, pages 43-83, Edward Elgar Publishing.

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