André Zylberberg

The consequences of the minimum wage when other wages are bargained over

Abstract This paper examines the impact of a binding minimum wage in a situation where unions dominated by skilled workers set wages. It is shown that the relationship between the minimum wage, the bargained wage and employment of skilled and unskilled workers depends on the magnitude of the elasticity of substitution between skilled and unskilled labor. Cases where minimum wage hikes increase both overall and unskilled employment are exhibited.

Le modèle WS-PS

This paper offers a dynamic model of the labor market with collective wage bargaining in a small open economy. The long run and short run equilibria are carefully distinguished, and the dynamics of the unemployment rate is analyzed. This model is useful to study the consequences of shocks on the fiscal wedge, the unemployment benefits, the cost of capital and other variables such as the growth rate of the labor force.

Niveaux de négociations salariales et performances macroéconomiques

This paper studies, in a general equilibrium model with imperfect competition, the economic efficiency of union wage settings arrangements at centralized, industry, and decentralized levels. The wage agreement at industry level is Pareto inefficient and entails the highest unemployment rate. The centralized wage setting dominates both industry and decentralized wage setting under the Pareto criterion.

Insiders et persistance: un réexamen dans un modèle de concurrence monopolistique

This article analyzes the effects of different types of transitory shocks on employment, and in particular their persistence. The basic model is of the standard monopolistic competition type, and the wage is determined through collective bargaining between firms and insiders. It appears that the results depend on the type of shock: while the typical finding of agregate employment following a random walk with drift holds when the economy experiences a nominal agregate shock, we show that it behaves in a deterministic way in front of heterogeneous local disturbances. This makes us able to discuss the usual conclusions of the insider-outsider theory.