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Estimating the Effect of Minimum Wages on Employment from the Distribution of Wages: A Critical View

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Richard Dickens
Stephen Machin
Alan Manning

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Abstract

In two papers, Meyer and Wise (1983a,b) present an ingenious method for estimating the effect of minimum wage rates on wages and employment using data based only on the observed cross-sectional distribution of wages. They, and others who have used this method, have generally found that the minimum wage causes substantial losses in employment. In this paper we evaluate the robustness of this technique. We argue that the estimates, at least for the UK, are very sensitive to the functional form assumed for the distribution of wages and to the assumption made about how far up the wage distribution the minimum wage has spillover effects.

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Paper provided by Centre for Economic Performance, LSE in its series CEP Discussion Papers with number dp0203.

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Date of creation: Aug 1994
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Handle: RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp0203

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Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Brown, Charles & Gilroy, Curtis & Kohen, Andrew, 1982. "The Effect of the Minimum Wage on Employment and Unemployment," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 20(2), pages 487-528, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Kaufman, Roger T, 1989. "The Effects of Statutory Minimum Rates of Pay on Employment in Great Britain," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 99(398), pages 1040-53, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. David Card & Alan Krueger, 1993. "Minimum Wages and Employment: A Case Study of the Fast Food Industry in New Jersey and Pennsylvania," Working Papers 694, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section.. [Downloadable!]
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  4. Lawrence Katz & Alan Krueger, 1992. "The Effect of the Minimum Wage on the Fast Food Industry," Working Papers 678, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section.. [Downloadable!]
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  5. repec:fth:prinin:315 is not listed on IDEAS
  6. Singh, S K & Maddala, G S, 1976. "A Function for Size Distribution of Incomes," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 44(5), pages 963-70, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. repec:fth:prinin:298 is not listed on IDEAS
  8. McDonald, James B, 1984. "Some Generalized Functions for the Size Distribution of Income," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(3), pages 647-63, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Natalya Y. Shelkova, 2008. "Low-Wage Labor Markets and the Power of Suggestion," Working papers 2008-33, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics, revised Dec 2008. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Guy Laroque & Bernard Salanie, 2002. "Labour market institutions and employment in France," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(1), pages 25-48. [Downloadable!]
  3. Cavaco, Sandra & Lesueur, Jean-Yves & Sabatier, Mareva, 2003. "Stratégies De Recherche, Contraintes Spatiales Et Hétérogénéité Des Transitions Vers L’Emploi : Estimation Économétrique D’Un Modèle Structurel De Recherche
    [Job search strategies, spa
    ," MPRA Paper 10499, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  4. Koning, Pierre & Berg, Gerard J. van den & Ridder, Geert, 1998. "Semi-nonparametric estimation of an equilibrium search model," Serie Research Memoranda 0003, VU University Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Econometrics. [Downloadable!]
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  5. Sara Lemos, 2007. "A Survey of the Effects of the Minimum Wage in Latin America," Discussion Papers in Economics 07/04, Department of Economics, University of Leicester. [Downloadable!]
  6. Sara Lemos, 2004. "The Effects Of The Minimum Wage On Wages And Employment In Brazil - A Menu Of Minimum Wage Variables," Labor and Demography 0403008, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
  7. Christian Ragacs, 2003. "Mindestlöhne und Beschäftigung: Ein Überblick über die neuere empirische Literatur," Working Papers geewp25, Vienna University of Economics and B.A. Research Group: Growth and Employment in Europe: Sustainability and Competitiveness. [Downloadable!]
  8. Pedro Portugal & Ana Rute Cardoso, 2001. "Disentangling the minimum wage puzzle: an analysis of job accessions and separations from a longitudinal matched employer- employee data set," Working Papers 9, Núcleo de Investigação em Microeconomia Aplicada (NIMA), Universidade do Minho. [Downloadable!]
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