Alan Manning: “It is important to have institutions such as the minimum wage to adress the market power of employers”

Professor Alan Manning, one of the world’s most renowned labour market economists, explains in this video-statement the basic idea of imperfect competition in the labour market. He elaborates on the power of employers to keep wages lower than they would be in a competitive market and stresses the importance to address this imbalance with institutions such as the minimum wage.

The experience and research on minimum wage in the United Kingdom also influenced the introduction of the minimum wage in Germany and an in other countries according to Alan Manning. In this regard, he speaks of his research connections to the IAB and how he appreciates the IAB’s special access to data that the United Kingdom does not have.

Alan Manning gave this interview on the sidelines of an IAB workshop on incomplete competition in the labour market in May 2023.

More about Alan Manning

Alan Manning is a British economist and professor of economics at the London School of Economics. He is one of the leading labour economists globally, having made major contributions to the analysis of the imperfections of labour markets, the minimum wage literature, migration, and job polarisation.

doi: 10.48720/IAB.FOO.20230605.02