Essays in Labour Economics

Labour markets in advanced economies are becoming more polarized. More people are leaving the labour force, those in employment work more hours. Inequality is on the rise and poverty remains persistent. Potential policy measures to negate these trends are more redistributive tax systems flanked with reworking the unemployment insurance system and wage policies e.g. minimum wages and wage subsidies. Extensive research has been conducted with regard to these policy instruments, and their effects on unemployment and poverty. Yet there are some caveats in the literature that this project wants to address. First, there is very little research conducted to ex-ante marginal tax reforms. Second, optimal unemployment insurance literature is heavily focussed around search effort and benefits. The conditionality of unemployment benefits on accepting adequate job offers has not yet been researched. The optimal scheme of unemployment insurance contributions is also not investigated yet. Lastly, there is no structural labour supply model available that allows for simulating the effects of minimum wages and wage subsidies. This makes ex-ante comparisons between minimum wages, wage subsidies, and income subsidies difficult. In this project, structural labour market models will be constructed to investigate and resolve these caveats.