IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/9303.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Fair Wage Hypothesis, International Factor Mobility and Skilled-Unskilled Wage Inequality in a Developing Economy

Author

Listed:
  • Chaudhuri, Sarbajit
  • Banerjee, Dibyendu

Abstract

Agell and Lundborg (1995, Economica) have accommodated the fair wage hypothesis (FWH) in an otherwise 2×2 Hechscher-Ohlin-Samuelson model for examining the robustness of certain standard trade theorems. The present paper proposes to introduce the FWH in a three sector general equilibrium model with two types of labour: skilled and unskilled. Skilled labour is specific to the high-skill sector and receives the efficiency wage while unskilled labour in the other two sectors receives either the competitive wage or the high unionized wage. Using such a framework the consequences of international mobility of factors of production on the skilled-unskilled wage inequality and unemployment of skilled labour in a developing economy have been analyzed. Both foreign capital inflows and emigration of skilled labour improve the skilled-unskilled wage inequality under reasonable condition. Particularly, the result relating to emigration of skilled labour is counterintuitive.

Suggested Citation

  • Chaudhuri, Sarbajit & Banerjee, Dibyendu, 2008. "Fair Wage Hypothesis, International Factor Mobility and Skilled-Unskilled Wage Inequality in a Developing Economy," MPRA Paper 9303, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:9303
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/9303/1/MPRA_paper_9303.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. George A. Akerlof & Janet L. Yellen, 1990. "The Fair Wage-Effort Hypothesis and Unemployment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 105(2), pages 255-283.
    2. Robert C. Feenstra & Gordon H. Hanson, 1995. "Foreign Investment, Outsourcing and Relative Wages," NBER Working Papers 5121, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Hamid Beladi & Sarbajit Chaudhuri & Shigemi Yabuuchi, 2008. "Can International Factor Mobility Reduce Wage Inequality in a Dual Economy?," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(5), pages 893-903, November.
    4. Pieter Serneels, 2007. "The Nature of Unemployment among Young Men in Urban Ethiopia," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(1), pages 170-186, February.
    5. Hamid Beladi & Sarbajit Chaudhuri & Shigemi Yabuuchi, 2006. "Can international factor mobility lessen wage inequality in a dual economy?," Working Papers 0022, College of Business, University of Texas at San Antonio.
    6. Marjit, Sugata & Kar, Saibal, 2005. "Emigration and wage inequality," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 141-145, July.
    7. Shapiro, Carl & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1984. "Equilibrium Unemployment as a Worker Discipline Device," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(3), pages 433-444, June.
    8. Yabuuchi, Shigemi & Chaudhuri, Sarbajit, 2007. "International migration of labour and skilled-unskilled wage inequality in a developing economy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 128-137, January.
    9. Kingdon, Geeta Gandhi & Knight, John, 2004. "Unemployment in South Africa: The Nature of the Beast," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 391-408, March.
    10. Sugata Marjit & Hamid Beladi & Avik Chakrabarti, 2004. "Trade and Wage Inequality in Developing Countries," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 42(2), pages 295-303, April.
    11. Chaudhuri, Sarbajit & Yabuuchi, Shigemi, 2007. "Economic liberalization and wage inequality in the presence of labour market imperfection," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 592-603.
    12. Quibria, M. G., 1988. "A note on international migration, non-traded goods and economic welfare in the source country," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 377-387, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chaudhuri, Sarbajit & Banerjee, Dibyendu, 2010. "Foreign capital inflow, skilled-unskilled wage inequality and unemployment of unskilled labour in a fair wage model," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 477-486, January.
    2. Chaudhuri, Sarbajit, 2008. "Fair Wage Hypothesis, Foreign Capital Inflow and Skilled-unskilled Wage Inequality in the Presence of Agricultural Dualism," MPRA Paper 9394, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Gupta, Manash Ranjan & Dutta, Priya Brata, 2011. "Skilled-unskilled wage inequality and unemployment: A general equilibrium analysis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 1977-1983, July.
    4. Anwar, Sajid & Rice, John, 2009. "Labour mobility and wage inequality in the presence of endogenous foreign investment," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 1135-1139, November.
    5. Gupta, Manash Ranjan & Dutta, Priya Brata, 2012. "Skilled–unskilled wage inequality, product variety, public input and increasing returns: A static general equilibrium analysis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 502-513.
    6. Pi, Jiancai & Zhou, Yu, 2013. "Institutional quality and skilled–unskilled wage inequality," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 356-363.
    7. Pi, Jiancai & Zhou, Yu, 2012. "Public infrastructure provision and skilled–unskilled wage inequality in developing countries," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(6), pages 881-887.
    8. Xiaochun Li & Yuanting Xu, 2016. "Unemployment, Wage Inequality and International Factor Movement in the Presence of Agricultural Dualism," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(2), pages 415-425, May.
    9. Chaudhuri, Sarbajit, 2008. "Wage inequality in a dual economy and international mobility of factors: Do factor intensities always matter?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 25(6), pages 1155-1164, November.
    10. Sarbajit Chaudhuri & Jayanta Kumar Dwibedi, 2022. "Anti‐immigration policy in developed countries: Welfare and distributional implications for developing economies," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 18(3), pages 358-381, September.
    11. Chaudhuri, Sarbajit & Marjit, Sugata, 2017. "International trade and quality of labour," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 582-595.
    12. Hamid Beladi & Sarbajit Chaudhuri & Shigemi Yabuuchi, 2006. "Can international factor mobility lessen wage inequality in a dual economy?," Working Papers 0022, College of Business, University of Texas at San Antonio.
    13. Li, Xiaochun & Zhou, Yu, 2013. "An economic analysis of remittance of unskilled migration on skilled–unskilled wage inequality in labor host region," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 428-432.
    14. Manash Ranjan Gupta & Priya Brata Dutta, 2018. "Skilled-unskilled wage inequality and structural transformation in a dual economy," Indian Economic Review, Springer, vol. 53(1), pages 311-332, December.
    15. Chaudhuri, Sarbajit, 2008. "International Factor Mobility, Skills Formation and Welfare," MPRA Paper 9302, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Pi, Jiancai & Zhang, Pengqing, 2021. "Redistribution and wage inequality," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 510-523.
    17. Pi, Jiancai & Zhang, Pengqing, 2016. "Hukou system reforms and skilled-unskilled wage inequality in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 90-103.
    18. Pi, Jiancai & Zhou, Yu, 2014. "Foreign capital, public infrastructure, and wage inequality in developing countries," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 195-207.
    19. Kuo‐Hsing Kuo & Shang‐Fen Wu & Cheng‐Te Lee, 2022. "The impact of environmental policy on wage inequality," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 18(4), pages 472-485, December.
    20. Gupta, Manash Ranjan & Dutta, Priya Brata, 2010. "Skilled-unskilled wage inequality: A general equilibrium analysis," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(4), pages 247-263, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Fair wage hypothesis; skilled labour; unskilled labour; wage inequality; Foreign capital; unemployment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • J41 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Labor Contracts
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

    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:pra:mprapa:9303. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    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 bibliographic 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.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.