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Exploiting the Irish Border to Estimate Minimum Wage Impacts in Northern Ireland

Author

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  • McVicar, Duncan

    (Queen's University Belfast)

  • Park, Andrew

    (University of Ulster)

  • McGuinness, Seamus

    (Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin)

Abstract

This paper examines employment and hours impacts of the 1999 introduction of the UK National Minimum Wage (NMW) and the 2016 introduction of the UK National Living Wage (NLW) in Northern Ireland (NI). NI is the only part of the UK with a land border where the NMW and NLW cover those working on one side of the border (NI) but not those working on the other side of the border (Republic of Ireland). This discontinuity in minimum wage coverage enables a research design that estimates the impacts of the NMW and NLW on employment and hours worked using difference-in-differences. We find a small decrease in the employment rate of 22-59/64 year olds in NI, of up to two percentage points, in the year following the introduction of the NMW, but no impact on hours worked. We find no evidence that the introduction of the NLW impacted either employment or hours worked in NI.

Suggested Citation

  • McVicar, Duncan & Park, Andrew & McGuinness, Seamus, 2018. "Exploiting the Irish Border to Estimate Minimum Wage Impacts in Northern Ireland," IZA Discussion Papers 11585, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11585
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    Cited by:

    1. David Neumark, 2019. "The Econometrics and Economics of the Employment Effects of Minimum Wages: Getting from Known Unknowns to Known Knowns," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 20(3), pages 293-329, August.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    employment; Northern Ireland; minimum wages; hours;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J38 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Public Policy

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