Datta, Nikhil;
(2022)
Essays on Monopsony Power, Wage Floors and Atypical Work Arrangements.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
This thesis studies the role of monopsony power, wage floors and atypical work arrangements in modern labour markets. Chapter two studies the extent of monopsony power in a low pay labour market and explores its determinants. I emphasise the role of the spatial distribution of activity and workers’ distaste for commuting in generating imperfect substitutability between jobs, and heterogeneity in monopsony power. Estimates show strong evidence of monopsony power, with wage markdowns of 20-25\%, and a sizeable distaste for commuting amongst workers. Structural estimates of a job search model suggest that commutes are responsible for approximately 1/3 of the wage markdown. Chapter three studies the impact of a Living Wage on wages and intensive margin employment for workers within a large local services firm, with a focus on heterogeneous impacts across age groups. I show the Living Wage raised wages but did not affect aggregate hours, however there is evidence of a reallocation of hours by age arising from differential eligibility to be paid the Living Wage. Chapter four studies the evolving nature of atypical work arrangements, and the interaction with labour wage floors is also explored in the context of the 2016 introduction of the UK’s National Living Wage. Chapter five investigates the extent to which labour supply preferences are responsible for the marked rise in atypical work arrangements in the UK and US. In particular I estimate the distribution for preferences and willingness-to-pay over various job attributes. The list of attributes includes key distinguishing factors of typical and atypical work arrangements, such as security, work-related benefits, flexibility, autonomy and taxation implications. The results are indicative that the majority of the population prefer characteristics associated with traditional employee-employer relationships, and this preference holds even when analysing just the sub-sample of those in atypical work arrangements.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Essays on Monopsony Power, Wage Floors and Atypical Work Arrangements |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2022. 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 > 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 UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10153760 |
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