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trong prevailing wage” states was then compared by dividing the value of construction contracts in 1997 by the number of construction workers (Vedder 1997). The results indicated that the output per construction worker was actually about four percent higher in the states without prevailing wages, suggesting that the existence of such laws may lead to inefficiencies and reduced productivity, enhancing our confidence in stating that prevailing wage laws materially raise the costs to taxpayers.

 

As discussed earlier, there is a reason to believe that prevailing wages would tend to reduce the employment opportunities for groups that have racially discriminating behavior. Even historically, many of the proponents of the Davis-Bacon Act wanted to reduce the number of African American employees in the workplace. The Chart below summarizes the Michigan and the nation the number of construction workers per 1,000 total employed for both blacks and whites, using data from the 1990 Census of Population.

 

Even though employment was lowered because of prevailing wages laws, as discussed earlier, we find that this employment was particularly reduced for the blacks, which is consistent with the theory that prevailing wage laws reduce financial disincentives for employers to discriminate by race. “Nationwide, blacks in 1990 were 74 percent as well represented in construction as whites (as measured by the percent of workers working construction). That underrepresentation may well reflect the discriminatory impact of the national Davis-Bacon Act as well as individual state prevailing wage laws. The Michigan strong prevailing wage law, however, seems to compound the racial effects. In Michigan, blacks in 1990 were less than 50 percent as well represented in construction as were whites. The Michigan figure is well below that for the nation as a whole. While other factors could be at work here, it is not known what they are” (Vedder 1997). There is very strong, even compelling, circumstantial evidence that the Michigan prevailing wage law has reduced employment opportunities in particular for blacks (Hunter 1997).

 

Conclusion

 

This paper has discussed the prevailing wages laws in Michigan and has reviewed many evidences and data that pertain to the various ways in which these prevailing wages affect the economy. It has been found that Michigan is a strong prevailing wages state. This discussion has led us to believe that these prevailing wages are having an adverse effect on the economy of Michigan. The evidence has pointed to prevailing wages being responsible for the rise in unemployment, construction costs, as well as social costs such as racial discrimination etc. prevailing wages have known to cause significant unemployment in the economy. It was also found that the temporary annulment of the prevailing wages laws resulted in more than eleven thousand new jobs to come up. Thus, both the theoretical as well as empirical evidences suggest that workers (both the majority as well as the minority) will particularly gain from the removal of pre本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。