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Disentangling the Minimum Wage Puzzle: An Analysis of Worker Accessions and Separations

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Author Info
Portugal, Pedro () (Banco de Portugal and Universidade Nova de Lisboa)
Cardoso, Ana Rute (Universidade do Minho, CEPR and IZA Bonn)

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Abstract

Changes in the legislation in the mid-80s in Portugal provide remarkably good conditions for analysis of the employment effects of mandatory minimum wages, as the minimum wage increased sharply for a very specific group of workers. Relying on a matched employer employee panel data set, we model gross worker flows - accessions and separations - in continuing firms, as well as in new firms and those going out of business, using a count regression model applied to proportions. Employment trends for teenagers, the affected group, are contrasted to those of older workers, before and after the raise in the youth minimum wage. The major effect on teenagers of a rising minimum wage is the reduction of separations from the employer, which compensates for the reduction of accessions to new and continuing firms. In this sense, our results can reconcile some of the previous evidence that has been presented in the empirical literature when analyzing the aggregate impact of the minimum wage on youth employment without decomposing it by type of worker flow.

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Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 544.

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Length: 35 pages
Date of creation: Aug 2002
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Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp544

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Related research
Keywords: minimum wage employment

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior
J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
J38 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Public Policy

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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. Meyer, Robert H & Wise, David A, 1983. "Discontinuous Distributions and Missing Persons: The Minimum Wage and Unemployed Youth," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 51(6), pages 1677-98, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  2. Neumark, David & Wascher, William, 1995. "Minimum-Wage Effects on School and Work Transitions of Teenagers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(2), pages 244-49, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  3. 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)
  4. David Neumark, 1999. "The Employment Effects of Recent Minimum Wage Increases: Evidence from a Pre-specified Research Design," NBER Working Papers 7171, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Linneman, Peter, 1982. "The Economic Impacts of Minimum Wage Laws: A New Look at an Old Question," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 90(3), pages 443-69, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. John M. Abowd & Francis Kramarz & David N. Margolis, 1999. "Minimum Wages and Employment in France and the United States," NBER Working Papers 6996, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  7. Lawrence F. Katz & Alan B. Krueger, 1992. "The Effect of the Minimum Wage on the Fast Food Industry," NBER Working Papers 3997, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Lang, Kevin & Kahn, Shulamit, 1998. "The effect of minimum-wage laws on the distribution of employment: theory and evidence," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 67-82, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. S Machin & A Manning, 1992. "Minimum Wages," CEP Discussion Papers 080, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
  10. Dickens, Richard & Machin, Stephen & Manning, Alan, 1999. "The Effects of Minimum Wages on Employment: Theory and Evidence from Britain," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 17(1), pages 1-22, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. Stewart, Mark B., 2002. "The Impact of the Introduction of the UK Minimum Wage on the Employment Probabilities of Low Wage Workers," Royal Economic Society Annual Conference 2002 169, Royal Economic Society. [Downloadable!]
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  12. Meyer, Robert H & Wise, David A, 1983. "The Effects of the Minimum Wage on the Employment and Earnings of Youth," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(1), pages 66-100, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  13. Burkhauser, Richard V & Couch, Kenneth A & Wittenburg, David C, 2000. "A Reassessment of the New Economics of the Minimum Wage Literature with Monthly Data from the Current Population Survey," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 18(4), pages 653-80, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. Meyer, Bruce D, 1995. "Natural and Quasi-experiments in Economics," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 13(2), pages 151-61, April.
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  15. Olivier Blanchard & Pedro Portugal, 2001. "What Hides Behind an Unemployment Rate: Comparing Portuguese and U.S. Labor Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(1), pages 187-207, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  16. Cahuc, P. & Saint-Martin, A. & Zylberberg, A., 2001. "The consequences of the minimum wage when other wages are bargained over," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 337-352, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  17. Janet Currie & Bruce Fallick, 1993. "The Minimum Wage and the Employment of Youth: Evidence from the NLSY," NBER Working Papers 4348, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  19. David Neumark & William Wascher, 2000. "Minimum Wages and Employment: A Case Study of the Fast-Food Industry in New Jersey and Pennsylvania: Comment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(5), pages 1362-1396, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  20. Neumark, David & Wascher, William, 1995. "Minimum Wage Effects on Employment and School Enrollment," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 13(2), pages 199-206, April.
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  21. Card, David & Krueger, Alan B, 1994. "Minimum Wages and Employment: A Case Study of the Fast-Food Industry in New Jersey and Pennsylvania," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(4), pages 772-93, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  22. Machin, Stephen & Manning, Alan, 1996. "Employment and the Introduction of a Minimum Wage in Britain," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 106(436), pages 667-76, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  23. Gerard J. van den Berg & Geert Ridder, 1998. "An Empirical Equilibrium Search Model of the Labor Market," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 66(5), pages 1183-1222, September.
  24. Burdett, Kenneth & Mortensen, Dale T, 1998. "Wage Differentials, Employer Size, and Unemployment," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 39(2), pages 257-73, May.
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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. Dean Hyslop & Steven Stillman, 2004. "Youth Minimum Wage Reform and the Labour Market," Treasury Working Paper Series 04/03, New Zealand Treasury. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Böckerman, Petri & Uusitalo, Roope, 2007. "Minimum wages and youth employment: Evidence from the Finnish retail trade sector," MPRA Paper 6113, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  3. Pedro S. Martins, 2004. "Do Foreign Firms Really Pay Higher Wages? : Evidence from Different Estimators," CRIEFF Discussion Papers 0409, Centre for Research into Industry, Enterprise, Finance and the Firm. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Arnab K. Basu & Nancy H. Chau & Ravi Kanbur, 2007. "Turning a Blind Eye: Costly Enforcement, Credible Commitment and Minimum Wage Laws," IZA Discussion Papers 2998, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Isabelle Méjean & Lise Patureau, 2008. "Location decisions and Minimum Wages," THEMA Working Papers 2008-06, THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
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