Holdup in oligopsonistic labour markets - a new role for the minimum wage

B-Tier
Journal: Labour Economics
Year: 2008
Volume: 15
Issue: 3
Pages: 334-349

Authors (2)

Score contribution per author:

1.005 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 1.0x B-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

We consider a labour market model of oligopsonistic wage competition and show that there is a holdup problem although workers do not have any bargaining power. When a firm invests more, it pays a higher wage in order to attract workers from competitors. Because workers participate in the returns on investment while only firms bear the costs, investment is inefficiently low. A binding minimum wage can achieve the first-best level of investment, both in the short run for a given number of firms and in the long run when the number of firms is endogenous.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:labeco:v:15:y:2008:i:3:p:334-349
Journal Field
Labor
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-25