GAME THEORY AS A TOOL OF ANALYSIS FOR WAGE DETERMINATION IN NIGERIA: A SPECIAL REFERENCE TO HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS
Keywords:
Game theory, national minimum wage determinationAbstract
This paper studies the game theory as a tool of analysis for minimum wage determination in Nigeria: A special reference to healthcare professionals. The consequences of strike that comes with the minimum wage determination in Nigeria among the healthcare professional and its invaluable consequences on health outcomes has resulted in seeking for a scientific tool through which such conflict could be diffused and negotiated with high degree of certainty. Secondary data, collected from Central Bank of Nigeria and National Bureau of Statistics were used for the analysis. The organized healthcare professionals and the government were the key players in the game. Also, the game is a pure competitive game, were each of the players uses three mixed strategies of purchasing power parity, Ability to pay and cost of living as strategies. These three strategies were applied in various proportions by organized healthcare professionals and government in their negotiations. Therefore, for healthcare professionals to successful and empirically negotiated the minimum wage for their members, the study found that they have to use the purchasing power parity over 100% of the times; Ability to pay, 54.2% of the times and cost of living 8.3% of the times. While government using the same strategy with different criteria as used by organized healthcare professionals, will use purchasing power parity 29.2% of the times; Ability to pay 56.5% of the times and cost of living 15.2% of the time. The value of the game is 3.791 and if applied to the N70, 000 current national minimum wage, then expected best new minimum wage for organized healthcare professionals should be N265, 370. The study recommended the use of game theory as a tool in the determination of new minimum wage devoid of an ambiguity and suspicion by all the players involved especially by the organized labour.
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