The workshop aims to connect INCDIS expertise with knowledge from EDUC and EMPLOY on low skill and FAMNET on within-household employment. For updating, filling of gaps and extending to underresearched issues linking to EDUC and FAMNET some stimulus to research is included, for network members and invited contributors. The proposal is general to maximise bottom-up contributions. A call for contributions across the network will mention potential topics and use the response to see if a stronger focus than the above workshop title suggests, is desirable and possible. The response will also help to select one person from each of the four groups to be involved in further preparations. The call may be circulated more broadly, beyond Equalsoc, but will then carry a fee for participants to cover additional costs.
In particular, we hope the workshop can contribute to i) opening up the black box of low-wage employment – looking beyond the aggregates or averages of the low paid as a whole into the distribution below the low-pay threshold – and ii) taking stock of perspectives beyond low pay – scrutinising if the middle of the earnings distribution is emptying out, as increasingly seems to be the case and is an important worry in the public debate in e.g. Germany, and what implications that may have for job careers out of low pay as well as for the perspectives of human capital investment more general. Participation of other interested scholars and policy makers will be encouraged.
Topics relating to the areas covered by the Research groups include, by way of examples, for
INCDIS taxation and benefits (evolution of marginal rates by income), (the depth of)
poverty, the effect of the minimum wage;
EDUC the above effects on human capital, the role of students in low pay – in relation to
e.g. parents households and government grants;
FAMNET the geographical spread of small low-paid jobs in relation to adult
female employment as second income in households, the overqualification of women to
these jobs;
EMPLOY the relation to productivity in the economy, the role of employer behaviour and
competitive conditions in the low-wage labour market for low-skilled working careers.
An invited keynote will cover each of these four links (to give an idea: David Autor, MIT).
Keynotes who agree to perform new research, may be given a fee for enabling/supporting
that.
