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Subjective well‐being and minimum wages: Evidence from U.S. states

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  • Masanori Kuroki

Abstract

This paper investigates whether increases in minimum wages are associated with higher life satisfaction by using monthly‐level state minimum wages and individual‐level data from the 2005–2010 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. The magnitude I find suggests that a 10% increase in the minimum wage is associated with a 0.03‐point increase in life satisfaction for workers without a high school diploma, on a 4‐point scale. Contrary to popular belief that higher minimum wages hurt business owners, I find little evidence that higher minimum wages lead to the loss of well‐being among self‐employed people.

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  • Masanori Kuroki, 2018. "Subjective well‐being and minimum wages: Evidence from U.S. states," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(2), pages 171-180, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:27:y:2018:i:2:p:e171-e180
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.3577
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    2. Kim, Seonghoon & Koh, Kanghyock, 2018. "Does Health Insurance Make People Happier? Evidence from Massachusetts' Healthcare Reform," IZA Discussion Papers 11879, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Lucas Hafner & Benjamin Lochner, 2022. "Do minimum wages improve self-rated health? Evidence from a natural experiment," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 62(6), pages 2989-3014, June.
    4. Fiona Carmichael & Christian K. Darko & Nicholas Vasilakos, 2022. "Well‐being and employment of young people in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam: Is work enough?," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 40(2), March.
    5. Bachmann, Ronald & Boockmann, Bernhard & Gonschor, Myrielle & Kalweit, René & Klauser, Roman & Laub, Natalie & Rulff, Christian & Vonnahme, Christina, 2022. "Auswirkungen des gesetzlichen Mindestlohns auf Löhne und Arbeitszeiten," RWI Projektberichte, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, number 264288.
    6. Seonghoon Kim & Kanghyock Koh, 2022. "Health insurance and subjective well‐being: Evidence from two healthcare reforms in the United States," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(1), pages 233-249, January.
    7. Hafner, Lucas, 2019. "Do minimum wages improve self-rated health? Evidence from a natural experiment," FAU Discussion Papers in Economics 02/2019, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Institute for Economics.
    8. Koch, Andreas & Kirchmann, Andrea & Reiner, Marcel & Scheu, Tobias & Zühlke, Anne & Bonin, Holger, 2020. "Verhaltensmuster von Betrieben und Beschäftigten im Kontext des gesetzlichen Mindestlohns," IZA Research Reports 97, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Yuji Mizushima & Haruko Noguchi, 2021. "Spillover effects of minimum wages on suicide mortality: Evidence from Japan," Working Papers 2105, Waseda University, Faculty of Political Science and Economics.

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