the low pay commission and the national minimum wage great britain has had statutory regulation of minimum pay for most of this century but never previously had a national minimum wage nmw this paper outlines the history of minimum wage regulation culminating in 1997 with the establishment of the low pay commission lpc the three key debates within the lpc are analysed namely the definition of the wage what to do about youngsters and the level to set the nmw the impact of the nmw on the pay distribution employment family incomes and exchequer finances is set out the paper concludes that the lpc is a fine example of successful social partnership

input output analysis of alternative policies implemented on the energy activities an application for catalonia abstract the aim of this paper is to analyze the economic impact of alternative policies implemented on the energy activities of the catalan production system specifically we analyze the effects of a tax on intermediate energy uses a reduction in intermediate energy demand and a tax on intermediate uses combined with a reduction in intermediate energy demand the methodology involves two versions of the input output price model a competitive price formulation and a mark up price formulation the input output price framework will make it possible to evaluate how the alternative measures modify production prices consumption prices private real income and intermediate energy uses the empirical application is for the catalan economy and uses economic data for the year 2001 the combination of a tax on energy uses and an improvement in the energy efficiency of the production system is a measure that accomplishes both economic and environmental goals since it has no effects on prices it has a positive effect on private real income and finally energy consumption is considerably reduced

repressed inflation queuing and the resale of goods in a centrally planned economy abstract the barro grossman repressed inflation model is reformulated incorporating the goods rationing scheme widely observed in centrally planned economies the informal queue we assume there are two types of individual differntiated by work ability this enables inclusion of another feature found in practice the private resale of goods less able individuals queue to buy goods both to consume and to resell to more able individuals the latter spend their time working for a relatively high wage rather than queuing among the comparative statics results is that the supply multiplier is negative positive if goods and leisure are gross substitutes complements

the influence of black markets on a queue rationed centrally planned economy abstract in centrally planned economies in which prices are fixed and the rationing mechanism is waiting line queues we show that an equilibrium of waiting times exists we then introduce a black market in which individuals can trade commodities that they have acquired through the official economy an equilibrium of black market prices and waiting times is shown to exist further the economy with a black market is queue efficient however the introduction of black markets is not necessarily a pareto improvement over an economy without black markets even when we allow winners to compensate losers

the effects of carbon taxation in china an analysis based on energy input output model in hybrid units abstract this paper evaluates the economy wide effects of carbon taxation in china to this end we build a price model based on an energy input output table in hybrid units that ensures the consistency of the analysis the results indicate that carbon taxation has small negative impact on gdp there are however relatively substantial emissions reductions to explore whether the impacts are spatially blind in the sense of having similar impacts on urban and rural residents the results of the distributional effects show that the impacts of carbon taxation on different urban household groups reveal small differences and are slightly regressive yet for rural residents carbon taxation may be significantly regressive in addition rural residents are found to be affected much more than urban residents furthermore the paper explores a policy intervention to investigate the effects of redistributing the carbon tax paid by households the main results reveal that reallocating the carbon tax to the groups with low income levels can offset the negative distributional effects significantly moreover the results of miyazawa style interrelational income multiplier analysis indicate that the household groups with high income would benefit significantly from the income increases in those with low income levels but not vice versa

water use in the spanish economy an input output approach against the background of the water limitations that often appear in spain the aim of this paper is to study the behaviour of the productive sectors of the spanish economy as direct and indirect consumers of water to that end we employ input output analysis with the particular methodology being based on the linkages analysis known as the hypothetical extraction method hem we have introduced three modifications to this method first the valuation is made in terms of water consumption secondly we obtain the components of the impacts of each block of activity into which the economy is divided with these components being described as the internal effect mixed linkage net or external backward linkage and net or external forward linkage thirdly this methodology is used to detect key sectors our results confirm the marked importance of the agriculture food and other services blocks as regards the direct and indirect consumption of water in general we also find that other services chemicals metals and electronics and agriculture blocks play an important role in explaining the consumption of drinking water moreover the hem analysis allows us to classify productive sectors according to their forward or backward linkage character in a way that is more precise than that permitted by earlier methods finally this methodology can be extended to other types of environmental pressures 2002 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

where the minimum wage bites hard introduction of minimum wages to a low wage sector between 1993 and april 1999 there was no minimum wage in the united kingdom except in agriculture in this paper we study the effects of the introduction of a national minimum wage nmw in april 1999 on one heavily affected sector the residential care homes industry this sector contains a large number of low paid workers and as such can be viewed as being very vulnerable to minimum wage legislation we look at the impact on both wages and employment our results suggest that the minimum wage raised the wages of a large number of care home workers causing a very big wage compression of the lower end of the wage distribution thereby strongly reducing wage inequality there is some evidence of employment and hours reductions after the minimum wage introduction though the estimated effects are not that sizable given how heavily the wage structure was affected

the impact of the introduction of the u k minimum wage on the employment probabilities of low wage workers this paper uses longitudinal data from three contrasting data sets matched labor force surveys the british household panel survey and matched new earnings surveys to estimate the impact of the introduction of the u k minimum wage in april 1999 on the probability of subsequent employment among those whose wages would have needed to be raised to comply with the minimum a difference in differences estimator is used based on position in the wage distribution no significant adverse employment effects are found for any of the four demographic groups considered adult and youth men and women or in any of the three data sets used jel j38 j23

the impact of china s economic reforms on agricultural productivity growth this paper presents a method for assessing the relative importance of price increases and strengthened individual incentives due to the introduction of the responsibility system for the post 1978 increase in china s agricultural productivity data on post 1978 chinese agricultural performance suggest that a little over three quarters of the measured productivity increase is due to payment system changes and the remainder to price increases we also use our method to calculate incentive indices giving an estimate of the fraction of their marginal product that peasants received under the pre 1978 regime

economic impact of alternative water policy scenarios in the spanish production system an input output analysis abstract this paper analyses the economic impact of alternative water policies implemented on the spanish production system the methodology comprises two versions of the input output price model an average cost formulation and a mark up formulation the input output framework evaluates the impact of the various water policy measures on production prices consumption prices intermediate water use and private real income the results show that a tax on the water used by sectors considerably reduces intermediate water consumption and increases production and consumption prices on the other hand according to jevons paradox improvements in technical efficiency which lead to a reduction in the water requirements of all sectors and an increase in water production raise water consumption the combination of a tax on the water used by sectors and an improvement in the technical efficiency of water in the production sphere takes the pressure off prices and significantly reduces intermediate water consumption

an input output model of water consumption analysing intersectoral water relationships in andalusia abstract this paper presents an input output model of sectoral water consumption created by combining the extended leontief input output model with the model of energy use developed by proops the analysis is applied to andalusia a region situated in the south of spain which is characterized by water shortage we determine which economic sectors consume the greatest quantities of water both directly and indirectly and to what extent this natural resource may become a limiting factor in the growth of certain production sectors the model allows us to distinguish between direct and indirect consumption thus offering the possibility of designing an economic and environmental policy oriented towards water saving additionally the model allows simulation of possible changes in water consumption caused by certain environmental measures as well as their consequences on the regional economy

wage growth and job mobility in the united kingdom and germany using data from the british household panel survey for 1991 99 and the german socio economic panel for 1984 99 the authors investigate job mobility and estimate the returns to tenure and experience job mobility was higher in the united kingdom than in germany returns to experience also seem to have been substantially higher in the united kingdom where the wage gain associated with ten years of labor market experience was around 80 compared to 35 in germany the low returns to labor market experience in germany appear to have been accountable to one group of workers those with apprenticeship training who tended to receive fairly high starting wages but to experience relatively low wage growth thereafter wage growth due to labor market experience was similar between the two countries for the other skill groups returns to tenure were close to zero in both countries

low pay and income in urban and rural areas evidence from the british household panel survey this paper examines the extent of urban rural differences in low pay and the link between low pay and low incomes using data on urban and rural residents from the british household panel survey for 1991 98 the results suggest that overall urban wages were significantly less than accessible rural but significantly more than remote rural wages even after adjustments were made for differences in observed characteristics a lower percentage of urban workers who experienced low pay were also resident in low income households lower urban in employment and in self employment poverty were found relative to poor remote rural households even after differences in the characteristics across the different samples were controlled for

spikes and spill overs the impact of the national minimum wage on the wage distribution in a low wage sector the uk national minimum wage nmw has had a minimal impact on uk wage inequality because it has been set at a modest level and because aggregate evidence suggests very small spill over effects but the small spill over effects might be because of the small numbers of workers affected and widespread anticipation of the introduction of the nmw might make the impact effect appear very small this paper investigates these issues using data collected from care homes where the nmw affected 40 of workers but we still find no evidence of large spill over effects and very small amounts of anticipation of the nmw

the potential impact of the minimum wage in rural areas this article explores the extent to which the potential impact of the national minimum wage might differ in rural areas using pre 1999 data from the british household panel survey a number of dimensions of the policy s potential impact in rural areas are considered in particular the number of workers affected their typical characteristics and the effects on pay inequality and household income distribution the results show that for the majority of rural areas that are accessible to urban labour markets the impact is likely to be broadly similar in contrast the potential impacts and particularly the distributional effects of the national minimum wage are found to be greatest in remoter rural areas

trade capital and the transition in central europe the potential for export oriented growth and the impact of official capital injections is assessed for five central european countries in the years 1990 2000 by means of a neoclassical simulation model export growth is essential for the transition to a market oriented economy and the recovery of central europe implying the need for trade liberalization by both the east and the west if this condition is being met satisfactory gdp growth rates appear possible even without external financial support

comparative advantage in agriculture in the newly independent states discussion costs are compared with import prices updated to include data for 1988 and extended to include machinery and equipment grain and meat these comparisons are taken to suggest that there was unrealised comparative advantage in machinery and equipment relative to agricultural products second he offers a conceptual examination of the effects of a complete liberalisation of the pre reform distortions these include a demand effect due to the revival of consumer sovereignty and a supply effect representing improvements in technical and allocative efficiency which might be expected when firms and agents within them are permitted to respond independently to market signals third he discusses evidence independent of the cost estimates offered previously that waste and technical inefficiency were more serious in the machinery and equipment sector than in agriculture this is seen to confirm that the reformed fsu economy will tend to export manufactures and import agricultural products finally he reports results from an analysis using the partial equilibrium swopsim model of world agriculture these results tend to confirm the earlier expectation that the reformed fsu agricultural sector would be import competing although excess supplies could develop in a few products such as wheat the consumption of which was heavily subsidised by the pre reform policy regime the first issue for comment concerns the author s use of import cost ratios as measures of unrealized comparative advantage since these divide the marginal or average cost in each industry measured using the bergson adjusted factor cost approach by the marginal cost of corresponding imports they are a type of domestic resource cost schydlowsky indeed when divided by the nominal exchange rate they are closest to fane s drc p which if all goods were traded would be equivalent to the effective rate of protection to be a good measure of unrealized comparative advantage however it is necessary that the measure be based on shadow prices of all nontraded factors and inputs as well as of foreign exchange domestic prices recorded by the soviet regime are of no help in this incentive prices those at which the same number of price taking firms would maximize their profits by choosing the observed output are needed official statistics do not provide estimates of such prices though they can be approximated where parallel private markets exist 1 in the absence of these the author s icrs must serve as the best that can be done for the

new labour and the labour market the recent run of good macroeconomic news masks mounting evidence that worklessness is increasingly concentrated on selected individuals households and socio economic groups and in geographical areas these distributional aspects have been overlooked or ignored over the last 20 years but we believe they now form the most pressing labour market and social problems facing this administration we focus on what we view as the government s selected priorities the concentration of unemployment on certain individuals groups and areas increasing inactivity especially marked among less educated older men low pay persistence of low wages and its relationship with job loss and the distribution of work across households and child poverty many of these problems leave lasting scars on individuals so that successful intervention may beneficially change an individual s life chances we examine the evidence on each of these issues and the current state of policy aimed to reduce their scale or intensity copyright 2000 by oxford university press

a new method for estimating the effects of fuel taxes an application to thailand this article proposes a new methodology for estimating the impact of fuel price and tax changes on the general price level and the distribution of income and applies a model to thailand using data for 1975 76 and 1981 82 because the model allows for pricing under international competition where tax increases must be partially absorbed in reduced factor income rather than always being passed on in higher consumer prices the results are significantly different from those generated by the more conventional cost plus pricing rule the inflationary impact of fuel tax changes is slight because of both the openness of the economy and the low energy intensity of manufacturing and other production in thailand in contrast taxes on imports engender price increases not only for imports but also for goods which substitute for imports the model also indicates that the net effects of taxes on petroleum products other than kerosene are progressive in their distributional impact relative to a tax on imports or consumption a main policy conclusion of the study is that fuel taxes could be used to increase both equity and allocative efficiency without inducing significant inflationary responses it follows that in the current circumstances of falling world oil prices developing countries could generate revenues needed for structural adjustment by increasing fuel taxes to maintain domestic petroleum price levels

computational controversies in disequilibrium and shortage modelling of centrally planned economies abstract most disequilibrium and shortage models of centrally planned economies fall into three categories testable excess demand the portes school disequilibrium indicators and kornai s economics of shortage these models have generated numerous controversies and conflicting empirical results however this paper argues that some disputes are not caused by the theoretical features of the models but rather by the utilisation of different estimation methods that are not directly comparable this suggests that several controversies are more apparent than real and can be resolved through the improvement of computational techniques and statistical hypothesis testing theory

a policymaker s guide to comparative advantage abstract for a country to produce according to its comparative advantage simply means that it chooses to produce those things which it can produce best such choice may be implemented by market mechanisms or by administrative means since most production decisions commit a country for more than a single period the future is relevant to present comparative advantage however the future is shaped in part by the actions of the present rather than being entirely exogenous the past also affects present comparative advantage through the legacy of installed productive capacity the dynamic domestic resource cost of foreign exchange is a quantitative tool which can be useful in the qualification and implementation of a comparative advantage oriented policy

when higher incomes reduce welfare queues labor supply and macro equilibrium in socialist economies starting from a micro model of consumer behavior under rationing by queuing that utilizes gary becker s allocation of time framework we develop a simple macroeconomic model of a socialist economy the length of the queue is the key endogenous variable that equilibrates aggregate supply and aggregate demand comparative statics analysis shows that an increase in wages over money prices brings about longer queues that reduce labor supply output and welfare when shortages grow beyond a certain critical level queues fail to sustain aggregate equilibrium in the economy