Orley Ashenfelter

First name
Orley
Last name
Ashenfelter
Abstract
Thanks to standardized work protocol and technology of McDonald’s restaurants, the hourly wage of McDonald’s Basic Crew enables wage comparisons under near-identical skill inputs and hedonic job conditions. McWages capture labor costs in entry-level jobs, while the Big Macs (earned) Per Hour (BMPH) index measures corresponding purchasing power of wages. We document large and growing geographical wage differences in standardized jobs using data covering most U.S. counties during 2016-2023. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, there was no BMPH growth where minimum wages stayed constant, but the pandemic wage increase, which diminished the importance of minimum wages, was stronger in these areas.
Year of Publication
2024
Number
658
Date Published
07/2024
Ashenfelter, O., & Jurajda, Štěpán. (2024). The U.S. Low-Wage Structure: A McWage Comparison. Retrieved from http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01nv935620t (Original work published July 2024)
Working Papers
Abstract
The last decade has witnessed a number of remarkable developments in public policy, laws, and law enforcement that are associated with failures of competition in US labor markets. These include: (1) enforcement actions and antitrust lawsuits with regard to explicit conspiracies to suppress competition in labor markets; (2) the documentation and forced abolition of franchise contracts that include worker "no-poaching" clauses; (3) explicit discussion of the regulation of mergers that affect labor market competition; and (4) legislation and regulation that affect "non-compete' and "non-solicit" clauses in employment contracts. In addition, there have been some highly visible examples of explicit collusion in labor markets, and these have raised questions about the extent to which competition has been damaged. This paper covers one such alleged conspiracy to reduce labor market competition among workers in the studio animation industry.3
Year of Publication
2023
Number
657
Date Published
01/2023
Ashenfelter, O., & Gilgenbach, R. (2023). No-Poaching Agreements as Antitrust Violations: Animation Workers Antitrust Litigation. Retrieved from http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01z029p802k (Original work published January 2023)
Working Papers
Abstract
The last decade has witnessed a number of remarkable developments in public policy, laws and law enforcement that have been associated with failures of competition in US labour markets. These include: (1) enforcement actions and antitrust law suits regarding explicit conspiracies to suppress competition in labour markets; (2) the documentation and forced abolition of franchise contracts that include worker ‘no-poaching’ clauses; (3) explicit discussion of the regulation of mergers that affect labour market competition; and (4) legislation and regulation affecting ‘non-compete’ and ‘non-solicit’ clauses in employment contracts. In the following, I review the recent developments in public policy. I begin with a deconstruction of a particularly high-level conspiracy to reduce labour market competition in the High-Tech world.
Year of Publication
2023
Number
656
Date Published
06/2023
Ashenfelter, O. (2023). Public policy and labour market competition. Retrieved from http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01tq57nv28b (Original work published June 2023)
Working Papers
Abstract

This paper summarizes the results of nearly a dozen new papers presented at the Sundance Conference on Monopsony in Labor Markets held in October 2018.  These papers, to be published as a special issue of the Journal of Human Resources, study various aspects of monopsony and failures of competition in labor markets. It also reports on the new developments in public policies associated with widespread concerns about labor market competition and efforts to ameliorate competitive failures. The conference papers range from studies of the labor supply elasticity individual firms face to studies of local labor market concentration to studies of explicit covenants suppressing labor market competition. New policies range from private and public antitrust litigation to concerns about the effect of mergers and inter-firm agreements on labor market competition. We provide a detailed discussion of the mechanics of the Silicon Valley High Tech Worker conspiracy to suppress competition based on Court documents in the case. Non-compete agreements, which are not enforceable in three states already, have also come under scrutiny.  

Year of Publication
2021
Number
652
Date Published
10/2021
Ashenfelter, O., Card, D., Farber, H., & Ransom, M. R. (2021). Monopsony in the Labor Market New Empirical Results and New Public Policies. Retrieved from http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp016m311s43b (Original work published October 2021)
Working Papers
Keywords
Abstract

Based on hourly wage rates from nearly all McDonald’s restaurants, and prices of the Big Mac sandwich, we find an elasticity of the wage with respect to the minimum wage of 0.7. This elasticity does not differ between affected and unaffected restaurants because many restaurants maintain a constant wage ‘premium’ above the minimum wage. Higher minimum wages are not associated with faster adoption of touch-screen ordering, and there is near-full price pass-through of minimum wages. Minimum wages lead to higher real wages (expressed in Big Macs per hour) that are one fifth lower than the corresponding increases in nominal wages.

Year of Publication
2021
Number
646
Date Published
01/2021
Ashenfelter, O., & Jurajda, Štěpán. (2021). Wages, Minimum Wages, and Price Pass-Through: The Case of McDonald’s Restaurants. Retrieved from http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01sb397c318 (Original work published January 2021)
Working Papers
Year of Publication
1977
Number
95
Date Published
02/1977
Publication Language
eng
Citation Key
In J. Palmer and J. Pechman, (eds.), Welfare in Rural Areas: The North Carolina-Iowa Income Maintenance Experiment, (Boston:Brookings Institution, 1978)
Ashenfelter, O. (1977). The Labor Supply Response of Wage Earners in the Rural Negative Income Tax Experiment. Retrieved from http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01r494vk17m (Original work published February 1977)
Working Papers
Year of Publication
1971
Number
17
Date Published
03/1971
Publication Language
eng
Citation Key
Journal of Political Economy. Vol. 8, No. 3, Part 1, May-June 1972
Ashenfelter, O. (1971). Racial Discrimination and Trade Unionism. Retrieved from http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp0100000002n (Original work published March 1971)
Working Papers
Abstract

Using data on adult male workers we first investigate the
incremental effect of a year of schooling on unemployed hours,
and use this calculation to explain the difference in the pro-
portional effects of schooling on earnings and wages. Schooling
apparently reduces unemployed hours by reducing the incidence of
unemployment spells, but it does not significantly affect their
duration. We next test whether unemployed hours represent
real constraints on worker behavior. To do this we develop
and estimate life—cycle models of labor supply for workers with
and without spells of unemployment using longitudinal data. The
results imply that perhaps three-quarters of the unemployed hours
of male workers are part of the offer to sell labor.

Year of Publication
1979
Number
121
Date Published
04/1979
Publication Language
eng
Citation Key
Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 87, No. 5, pt. 2, October 1979
Ashenfelter, O., & Ham, J. (1979). Education, Unemployment, and Earnings. Retrieved from http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01fb494841t (Original work published April 1979)
Working Papers
Year of Publication
1982
Number
148
Date Published
06/1982
Publication Language
eng
Citation Key
Review of Economic Studies, Vol. 49, Special Issue, 1982
Ashenfelter, O., & Card, D. (1982). Time Series Representation of Economic Variables and Alternative Models of the Labor Market. Retrieved from http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01dr26xx382 (Original work published June 1982)
Working Papers
Abstract

This paper reviews Robert Lalonde's contributions to labor economics and introduces a set of papers that were written in his honor and presented to him in the spring of 2015 at a conference held in his honor in Chicago.

Year of Publication
2017
Number
610
Date Published
05/2017
Publication Language
eng
Citation Key
9996
Ashenfelter, O., & Card, D. (2017). Essays in Honor of Robert J. Lalonde. Retrieved from http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01ww72bf01z (Original work published May 2017)
Working Papers