期刊名称：Economic Assessment of the Euro Area / Euroframe
出版年度：2007
卷号：SPR
出版社：The Economic and Social Research Institute
摘要：We explore the far-reaching implications of low-wage subsidies on aggregate employment.
Low-wage subsidies have three important e¡èects. First, they promote employment of unskilled
workers (who tend to be the ones who earn low wages). Second, by raising the payo¡è of un-
skilled work relative to skilled work, low-wage subsidies reduce the incentive to become skilled,
so that there are more unskilled workers associated with a relatively low employment rate.
Third, the government budget constraint has to be taken into account, which is supposed to
cause an additional tax burden for the skilled workers. This ampli.es the negative e¡èect of
low-wage subsidies on the incentive to acquire human capital. Thus, the .rst e¡èect on the one
hand and the second and third e¡èect on the other hand pull in opposite directions in terms of
employment.
This paper presents a theoretical model of the labor market in which these e¡èects can be ana-
lyzed. We then calibrate the model with respect to the German labor market to shed light on
the relative strengths of these e¡èects and thereby assess the degree to which low-wage subsidies
encourage or discourage employment.
关键词：low-wage subsidies; training incentives; employment; unemployment; skill acquisi-
tion
