An efficiency wage - imperfect information model of the aggregate supply curve

This study derives a reduced-form equation for the aggregate supply curve from a model in which firms pay efficiency wages and workers have imperfect information about average wages at other firms. If specific assumptions are made about workers’ expectations of average wages and about aggregate demand, the model predicts how the aggregate demand and supply curves shift and how output and prices adjust in response to demand shocks and supply shocks. The model also provides an alternative explanation for Lucas’ (1973) finding that the AS curve is steeper in countries with greater inflation variability.Aggregate supply curve; efficiency wages; imperfect information

Greenhouse gas emissions in New Zealand: a preliminary consumption-based analysis

Abstract: New Zealand’s per capita greenhouse gas emissions are usually calculated by taking total emissions as reported under the Kyoto Protocol or the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and simply dividing by population. However this focuses on emissions associated with production within New Zealand. From the point of view of individuals, these are not the emissions they control, and hence can mitigate. Individuals can calculate their “carbon footprint” but tools to do this typically focus on a few categories of emissions (mostly electricity, direct fuel use and waste) and emissions footprints are not available for a wide range of households so cannot be used for comparative analysis. This paper explores how the carbon emissions related to the consumption categories of households in New Zealand vary with household characteristics. We use product consumption data from the 2007 Household Economic Survey. Consumption within each category is linked to a carbon intensity multiplier (tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per dollar of consumption) which is derived from: the official 2007 input–output table of 106 industries produced by Statistics New Zealand; energy data on carbon dioxide per petajoule of fuel in each industry from the Energy Data File; and the Energy Greenhouse Gas Emissions Report both provided by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. Previous literature has used similar methods to calculate the incidence of a carbon tax (e.g. Creedy and Sleeman [2006]). This paper uses these methods in order to study which sectors of household expenditure offer the greatest opportunities for mitigation and how these opportunities vary with household characteristics such as income decile, region and household composition

The impact of evolving labor practices and demographics on U.S. inflation and unemployment

Since the early 1990s, NAIRU estimates have declined and unemployment duration has risen relative to the unemployment rate. These developments may have arisen from the aging of the workforce or practices reducing job turnover. We assess the internal consistency of these hypotheses using simulation methods and test their external consistency using modified NAIRU models. We find that demographics cannot fully account for changes in the NAIRU, consistent with Staiger, Stock, and Watson (2001) and in contrast to Shimer (1998, 2001). Instead, our results attribute shifts in the NAIRU and duration to a combination of shifts in demographics and job turnover.

A Model of the Determinants of Effort

This study derives an expression for effort from utility-maximizing behavior on the part of workers, whose utility depends on consumption, effort, and the ratio between their wage and their perceived fair wage. Unlike many shirking models, this study treats effort as a continuous variable rather than as a dichotomous choice. Effort is shown to depend on wages at a worker's current firm, wages at other firms, the ratio between a worker's wage and perceived fair wage, unemployment benefits, the unemployment rate, and the firm's monitoring intensity

Do Firms Pay Efficiency Wages? Evidence with Data at the Firm Level

This study tests the efficiency wage hypothesis by estimating wage and quit equations with data from the Employment Opportunity Pilot Project survey of firms. An efficiency wage model is derived that predicts effects of turnover costs and unemployment on wages as functions of first and second derivatives from the quit equation. The model is tested by examining the relationships between the coefficients in the wage and quit equations; the results are generally favorable to efficiency wage theory. Other important findings are that firm characteristics raising workers' productivity tend to raise wages and that a rise in turnover costs reduces quits

Carl Campbell Interview

Transcript of oral history interview with Carl Campbell by John Hanrahan on his experiences during the Vietnam War on January 29, 1984