The Micro-Economics of "Surplus Labour"

G. Ranis

Working Papers from Yale - Economic Growth Center

Abstract: This paper examines the apparent conflict between the classical assumption of a bargaining agricultural sector wage and the neo-classical assumption of a competitive wage in the context of a labour surplus developing economy. It concludes that the relatively inelastic supply of labour hours offered by low income small or landless farmers in the static micro-economic leisure/work context is perfectly consistent with the persistence for some time of an institutional real wage offered to the non-agricultural sector of the dual economy. Empirical evidence is brought to bear in support of that position.

Keywords: WAGES; FARMS; DEVELOPING COUNTRIES (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 17 pages
Date: 1997
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fth:yalegr:772

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Yale - Economic Growth Center U.S.A.; YALE UNIVERSITY, ECONOMIC GROWTH CENTER, YALE STATION NEW-HAVEN CONNECTICUT 06520 U.S.A. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Thomas Krichel ().