The prospect of attaining cost-savings was a significant source of motivation for repealing the prevailing wage requirement for bids on state and local public projects in Wisconsin. However, speculation on the economic impact of this policy change is mixed. Some analysts argue repeal of the state prevailing wage law leads to lower labor costs, and hence lower total project costs generating savings to taxpayers Other analysts argue any potential cost-savings associated with lower wages are more than offset by the increased employment of less productive workers by companies paying lower wages. This project empirically examines the immediate effect of repeal on construction costs as well as its effect on other economic outcomes for state and local projects in Wisconsin.
Project Documents
- Research Brief (coming soon)
- Final Report (coming soon)
Project Details
Status
Complete
Start Date
October 1, 2020
End Date
June 30, 2021
Focus Areas
Data Analytics, Modeling and Simulation
Economy and Policy
Sponsors
Wisconsin Infrastructure Investment Now
Research Centers
Institute for Physical Infrastructure and Transportation (IPIT)
Principal Investigator
Peoples, James
Professor, Economics University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Co-Principal Investigator
Gottlieb, Mark
Associate Director, Institute for Physical Infrastructure and Transportation (IPIT)