IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/uwa/wpaper/01-11.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Fair Wage Policy and Construction Costs in British Columbia

Author

Listed:
  • Kevin Duncan

    (Hasan School of Business, The University of Colarado)

  • Peter Philips

    (Department of Economics, The University of Utah)

  • Mark J. Prus

    (Department of Economics, Suny, Cortland)

Abstract

The effect of the 1992 Fair Wage and Skill Development Policy on construction costs in British Columbia is estimated by an econometric model in which costs are a function of the project's physical characteristics, location, as well as the applicability of the fair wage policy standards. Construction projects funded by private companies and by the Province of British Columbia before and after the introduction of the policy provide the data which were collected from 1989 to 1995. Depending on the measure of construction cost and the model specification employed, the results indicate that while public construction projects are from 26 to 47 percent more expensive than privately funded projects, the fair wage policy did not significantly impact this cost differential. given the status of construction labor supply in British Columbia at the time, it is unlikely that input substitution can explain all of this result. Rather, it is more likely that the profit margin enjoyed by non-union construction companies absorbed much of the cost of this policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Kevin Duncan & Peter Philips & Mark J. Prus, 2001. "Fair Wage Policy and Construction Costs in British Columbia," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 01-11, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:uwa:wpaper:01-11
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ecompapers.biz.uwa.edu.au/paper/PDF%20of%20Discussion%20Papers/2001/01-11.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. T. S. Breusch & A. R. Pagan, 1980. "The Lagrange Multiplier Test and its Applications to Model Specification in Econometrics," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 47(1), pages 239-253.
    2. Kennedy, Peter E, 1981. "Estimation with Correctly Interpreted Dummy Variables in Semilogarithmic Equations [The Interpretation of Dummy Variables in Semilogarithmic Equations]," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(4), pages 801-801, September.
    3. D. N. Gujarati, 1967. "The Economics of the Davis-Bacon Act," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 40, pages 303-303.
    4. Allen, Steven G, 1983. "Much Ado about Davis-Bacon: A Critical Review and New Evidence," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(3), pages 707-736, October.
    5. Breusch, T S & Pagan, A R, 1979. "A Simple Test for Heteroscedasticity and Random Coefficient Variation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 47(5), pages 1287-1294, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. George Anastassopoulos, 2003. "MNE subsidiaries versus domestic enterprises: an analysis of their ownership and location-specific advantages," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(13), pages 1505-1514.
    2. Sharma, Rajesh & Shahbaz, Muhammad & Sinha, Avik & Vo, Xuan Vinh, 2021. "Examining the temporal impact of stock market development on carbon intensity: Evidence from South Asian countries," MPRA Paper 108925, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2021.
    3. Daniel P. Kessler & Lawrence F. Katz, 2001. "Prevailing Wage Laws and Construction Laborc Markets," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 54(2), pages 259-274, January.
    4. Mirzaei Abbasabadi, Hamed & Soleimani, Mohammad, 2021. "Examining the effects of digital technology expansion on Unemployment: A cross-sectional investigation," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    5. Neves, Sónia Almeida & Marques, António Cardoso & de Sá Lopes, Leonardo Batista, 2024. "Is environmental regulation keeping e-waste under control? Evidence from e-waste exports in the European Union," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).
    6. Achille Augustin DIENDERE & Abdoul Hadirou YODA, 2023. "Understanding the effects of migrant remittances on agricultural production in West African countries," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 43(1), pages 398-412.
    7. Bodo Herzog & Lana dos Santos, 2021. "Google Search in Exchange Rate Models: Hype or Hope?," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-40, October.
    8. Olatunji A. Shobande & Simplice A. Asongu, 2021. "Financial Development, Human Capital Development and Climate Change in East and Southern Africa," Working Papers 21/042, European Xtramile Centre of African Studies (EXCAS).
    9. Héctor Pifarré i Arolas, 2017. "A cohort perspective of the effect of unemployment on fertility," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 30(4), pages 1211-1239, October.
    10. Bodo E. Steiner, 2004. "Australian wines in the British wine market: A hedonic price analysis," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(3), pages 287-307.
    11. Julia Koschinsky & Nancy Lozano-Gracia & Gianfranco Piras, 2012. "The welfare benefit of a home’s location: an empirical comparison of spatial and non-spatial model estimates," Journal of Geographical Systems, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 319-356, July.
    12. Barbara ERMINI & Raffaella SANTOLINI, 2013. "Does globalization matter on fiscal decentralization of OECD?," Working Papers 390, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali.
    13. Auteri, Monica & Mele, Marco & Ruble, Isabella & Magazzino, Cosimo, 2024. "The double sustainability: The link between government debt and renewable energy," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 29(C).
    14. Marcelo C. Medeiros & Alvaro Veiga, 2003. "Diagnostic Checking in a Flexible Nonlinear Time Series Model," Journal of Time Series Analysis, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(4), pages 461-482, July.
    15. Huynh, Cong Minh, 2022. "How does research and development affect the nexus of climate change and agricultural productivity in Asian and Pacific countries?," MPRA Paper 112628, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Engle, Robert F, 1982. "Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity with Estimates of the Variance of United Kingdom Inflation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(4), pages 987-1007, July.
    17. Ali, Qamar & Yaseen, Muhammad Rizwan & Anwar, Sofia & Makhdum, Muhammad Sohail Amjad & Khan, Muhammad Tariq Iqbal, 2021. "The impact of tourism, renewable energy, and economic growth on ecological footprint and natural resources: A panel data analysis," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    18. Jørgen Lauridsen & Reinhold Kosfeld, 2007. "Spatial cointegration and heteroscedasticity," Journal of Geographical Systems, Springer, vol. 9(3), pages 253-265, September.
    19. Céline Azémar & Rodolphe Desbordes, 2010. "Short‐run Strategies for Attracting Foreign Direct Investment," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(7), pages 928-957, July.
    20. Kevin Duncan & Peter Philips & Mark Prus, 2014. "Prevailing Wage Regulations and School Construction Costs: Cumulative Evidence from British Columbia," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(4), pages 593-616, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:uwa:wpaper:01-11. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sam Tang (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deuwaau.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.