Piqueras San Cristobal, Jon;
(2024)
Essays in Labor and Public Economics.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
My thesis combines data and theory to study the functioning of the low-wage labor market and the design of public policies aimed at reducing inequality. The first chapter studies whether unemployment insurance should vary with labor market conditions, taking into account differences in economic opportunity. In this context, the source of inequality matters, being crucial whether unemployment arises from differences in individual effort or disparities in work opportunities. Utilizing a broad range of data sources and empirical strategies, the study reveals that benefit duration should increase in difficult times, given that the efficiency costs decline while the social benefits increase considerably. An important novel mechanism behind this increase is that the pool of unemployed shifts towards high-effort individuals in bad times, and that society exhibits strong preferences for redistribution towards this type of unemployed individuals. The second chapter explores whether minimum wage policies induce search effort responses by the unemployed. Using machine learning methods, and combining different sources of publicly available data, it finds that the unemployed increase search effort in response to a higher minimum wage, but they do not find jobs faster. Interpreting the estimates through the lens of a standard search model reveals that equilibrium responses are key for understanding employment effects, and that the policy increases welfare for affected individuals. The third chapter, co-authored with Emiliano Huet-Vaughn, examines the labor market consequences of a unique natural experiment, consisting of a large increase and an equivalent subsequent decrease to a binding minimum wage. Employing a synthetic control strategy, the paper documents asymmetric responses, where wages in a leading low-wage industry increase as the minimum wage rises, but do not fall when it is lowered. This boost for low-wage workers' earnings is apparently long lasting after the policy is revoked, providing novel evidence of hysteresis in wage setting.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Essays in Labor and Public Economics |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2024. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of Economics |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10198049 |
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