IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp9962.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Monopsonistic Competition, Low-Wage Labour Markets, and Minimum Wages: An Empirical Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Bachmann, Ronald

    () (RWI)

  • Frings, Hanna

    () (RWI)

Abstract

This paper investigates the degree of monopsony power of employers in different industries against the background of a statutory minimum wage introduction in Germany in January 2015. A semi-structural estimation approach is employed based on a dynamic model of monopsonistic competition. The empirical analysis relies on a linked employer-employee data set which allows to control for heterogeneity both on the worker and on the firm side. The results show important differences in monopsonistic competition among low-wage industries: While retailing, the hotel and restaurant industry as well as agriculture can be described as monopsonistic labour markets, this is not true for other services and manufacturing of food products. From a policy point of view, the introduction of a uniform minimum wage may therefore lead to different employment reactions in industries with a similar minimum wage bite.

Suggested Citation

  • Bachmann, Ronald & Frings, Hanna, 2016. "Monopsonistic Competition, Low-Wage Labour Markets, and Minimum Wages: An Empirical Analysis," IZA Discussion Papers 9962, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9962
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://ftp.iza.org/dp9962.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dube, Arindrajit & Lester, T. William & Reich, Michael, 2011. "Do Frictions Matter in the Labor Market? Accessions, Separations and Minimum Wage Effects," IZA Discussion Papers 5811, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
    2. Peter Dolton & Chiara Rosazza Bondibene & Jonathan Wadsworth, 2012. "Employment, Inequality and the UK National Minimum Wage over the Medium‐Term," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 74(1), pages 78-106, February.
    3. Manning, Alan, 2003. "The real thin theory: monopsony in modern labour markets," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 105-131, April.
    4. Card, David & Krueger, Alan B, 1994. "Minimum Wages and Employment: A Case Study of the Fast-Food Industry in New Jersey and Pennsylvania," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(4), pages 772-793, September.
    5. Douglas O. Staiger & Joanne Spetz & Ciaran S. Phibbs, 2010. "Is There Monopsony in the Labor Market? Evidence from a Natural Experiment," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(2), pages 211-236, April.
    6. David Neumark & William L. Wascher, 2008. "Minimum Wages," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262141027, March.
    7. Kluve, Jochen & Schaffner, Sandra & Schmidt, Christoph M., 2006. "Labor Force Status Dynamics in the German Labor Market: Individual Heterogeneity and Cyclical Sensitivity," Technical Reports 2006,20, Technische Universität Dortmund, Sonderforschungsbereich 475: Komplexitätsreduktion in multivariaten Datenstrukturen.
    8. repec:zbw:rwipos:053 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. repec:zbw:rwirep:0139 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Bossler, Mario & Gerner, Hans-Dieter, 2016. "Employment effects of the new German minimum wage : evidence from establishment-level micro data," IAB Discussion Paper 201610, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    11. Giovanni Sulis, 2011. "What can monopsony explain of the gender wage differential in Italy?," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 32(4), pages 446-470, July.
    12. Kluve, Jochen, 2013. "So hoch wie möglich, so niedrig wie nötig: Was ist der optimale Mindestlohn?," RWI Positionen 53, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung.
    13. Ronald Bachmann, 2005. "Labour Market Dynamics in Germany: Hirings, Separations, and Job-to-Job Transitions over the Business Cycle," SFB 649 Discussion Papers SFB649DP2005-045, Sonderforschungsbereich 649, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany.
    14. Alison L. Booth & Pamela Katic, 2011. "Estimating the Wage Elasticity of Labour Supply to a Firm: What Evidence is there for Monopsony?," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 87(278), pages 359-369, September.
    15. Hanna Frings, 2013. "The Employment Effect of Industry-Specific, Collectively Bargained Minimum Wages," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 14(3), pages 258-281, August.
    16. vom Berge, Philipp & Frings, Hanna & Paloyo, Alfredo R., 2013. "High-Impact Minimum Wages and Heterogeneous Regions," Ruhr Economic Papers 408, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    17. Hirsch, Boris & Jahn, Elke J. & Schnabel, Claus, 2013. "The cyclical behaviour of employers' monopsony power and workers' wages," Discussion Papers 89, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Chair of Labour and Regional Economics.
    18. Webber, Douglas A., 2015. "Firm market power and the earnings distribution," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 123-134.
    19. Boris Hirsch & Thorsten Schank & Claus Schnabel, 2010. "Differences in Labor Supply to Monopsonistic Firms and the Gender Pay Gap: An Empirical Analysis Using Linked Employer-Employee Data from Germany," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(2), pages 291-330, April.
    20. repec:zbw:rwirep:0408 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. repec:spr:izalbr:v:6:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1186_s40172-017-0058-z is not listed on IDEAS

    More about this item

    Keywords

    labor-supply elasticities; low-wage industries; minimum wage; monopsony; Germany;

    JEL classification:

    • J42 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Monopsony; Segmented Labor Markets
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J38 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Public Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9962. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Mark Fallak). General contact details of provider: http://www.iza.org .

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.