High level comparative analysis of economics of low wages and underemployment.
When too little a reward is paid for low-wage work and as a result too little occurs, what is the most effective solution? Some of the world's leading economists look at the theory and evidence underpinning alternative approaches to the persistent problem of low wages and underemployment in western economies.
List of figures; List of tables; List of contributors; Introduction Edmund S. Phelps; 1. Low-wage employment subsidies in a labour-turnover model of the 'natural rate' Hian Teck Hoon and Edmund S. Phelps; 2. Taxes, subsidies and equilibrium labour market outcomes Dale Mortensen and Christopher Pissarides; 3. Learning-by-doing versus on-the-job training: using variation induced by the EITC to distinguish between models of skill formation James J. Heckman, Lance Lochner and Ricardo Cossa; 4. Unemployment vouchers versus low-wage subsidies J. Michael Orszag and Dennis J. Snower; Index.