IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/reviec/v26y2018i1p165-170.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Employment gains from minimum†wage hikes under perfect competition: A simple general†equilibrium analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Richard A. Brecher
  • Till Gross

Abstract

Contrary to conventional wisdom, higher minimum wages may lead to greater levels of employment under perfect competition. We demonstrate this possibility in a simple general†equilibrium model of involuntary unemployment, with two goods produced by two factors and consumed by two representative households. Within our model, hiking a minimum wage redistributes income between heterogeneous consumers. This redistribution may create an excess demand for the labor†intensive good, and hence increase total employment to restore equilibrium, despite the fact that every firm becomes less labor intensive.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard A. Brecher & Till Gross, 2018. "Employment gains from minimum†wage hikes under perfect competition: A simple general†equilibrium analysis," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(1), pages 165-170, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:reviec:v:26:y:2018:i:1:p:165-170
    DOI: 10.1111/roie.12322
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/roie.12322
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/roie.12322?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christopher J. Flinn, 2006. "Minimum Wage Effects on Labor Market Outcomes under Search, Matching, and Endogenous Contact Rates," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 74(4), pages 1013-1062, July.
    2. Ira N. Gang & Edward Tower, 1990. "Allocating Jobs under a Minimum Wage: Queues vs. Lotteries," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 66(3), pages 186-194, September.
    3. Harry G. Johnson, 1956. "The Transfer Problem and Exchange Stability," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 64, pages 212-212.
    4. Wolfgang F. Stolper & Paul A. Samuelson, 1941. "Protection and Real Wages," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 9(1), pages 58-73.
    5. Davis, Donald R, 1998. "Does European Unemployment Prop Up American Wages? National Labor Markets and Global Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(3), pages 478-494, June.
    6. Richard A. Brecher, 1974. "Minimum Wage Rates and the Pure Theory of International Trade," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 88(1), pages 98-116.
    7. Mohsen Bahmani & Hanafiah Harvey & Scott W. Hegerty, 2013. "Empirical tests of the Marshall‐Lerner condition: a literature review," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 40(3), pages 411-443, July.
    8. Alan Manning, 1995. "How Do We Know That Real Wages Are Too High?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(4), pages 1111-1125.
    9. Mohsen Bahmani & Hanafiah Harvey & Scott W. Hegerty, 2013. "Empirical tests of the Marshall-Lerner condition: a literature review," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 40(3), pages 411-443, May.
    10. Gang, Ira N & Tower, Edward, 1990. "Allocating Jobs under a Minimum Wage: Queues vs. Lotteries," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 66(194), pages 186-194, September.
    11. Giancarlo Gandolfo, 2014. "International Trade Theory and Policy," Springer Texts in Business and Economics, Springer, edition 2, number 978-3-642-37314-5, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chi‐Chur Chao & Mong Shan Ee & Xuan Nguyen & Eden S. H. Yu, 2022. "Minimum wage, firm dynamics, and wage inequality: Theory and evidence​," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 18(3), pages 247-271, September.
    2. Cristian Valeriu Paun & Radu Nechita & Alexandru Patruti & Mihai Vladimir Topan, 2021. "The Impact of the Minimum Wage on Employment: An EU Panel Data Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-17, August.
    3. Jiancai Pi & Shuxi Duan, 2023. "Appropriation, migration, and unemployment," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(3), pages 430-456, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Richard A. Brecher & Till O. Gross, 2014. "Employment Gains from Minimum-Wage Hikes under Perfect Competition: A Simple General-Equilibrium Analysis," Carleton Economic Papers 14-14, Carleton University, Department of Economics.
    2. David Hummels & Jakob R. Munch & Chong Xiang, 2018. "Offshoring and Labor Markets," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 56(3), pages 981-1028, September.
    3. Bai, Xue & Chatterjee, Arpita & Krishna, Kala & Ma, Hong, 2021. "Trade and minimum wages in general equilibrium: Theory and evidence," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    4. Richard A. Brecher & Zhihao Yu, 2021. "Trade-Induced Reduction In Unemployment Of A High-Wage Economy: A Minimum-Wage Model With Country-Specific Technology," Carleton Economic Papers 21-04, Carleton University, Department of Economics.
    5. Wisarut Suwanprasert, 2020. "Optimal trade policy, equilibrium unemployment, and labor market inefficiency," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(5), pages 1232-1268, November.
    6. Richard A. Brecher & Zhiqi Chen, 2010. "Unemployment of Skilled and Unskilled Labor in an Open Economy: International Trade, Migration, and Outsourcing," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(5), pages 990-1000, November.
    7. Dumont, Michel, 2004. "The Impact of International Trade with Newly Industrialised Countries on the Wages and Employment of Low-Skilled and High-Skilled Workers in the European Union," Thesis Commons bmxag, Center for Open Science.
    8. Schweinberger, Albert G., 2001. "Capital, heterogeneous labour, global goods markets and unemployment," Discussion Papers, Series I 309, University of Konstanz, Department of Economics.
    9. repec:dgr:rugsom:00c21 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Kala Krishna & Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay & Cemile Yavas, 2005. "Trade with Labor Market Distortions and Heterogeneous Labor: Why Trade Can Hurt," Contributions to Economics, in: Günter S. Heiduk & Kar-yiu Wong (ed.), WTO and World Trade, pages 65-83, Springer.
    11. Engelmann, Sabine, 2011. "Trade liberalisation, technical change and skill-specific unemployment," IAB-Discussion Paper 201119, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    12. Sinn, Hans-Werner, 2006. "Das deutsche Rätsel," Munich Reprints in Economics 950, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    13. Céline CARRERE & Marco FUGAZZA & Marcelo OLARREAGA & Frédéric ROBERT-NICOUD, 2014. "Trade in Unemployment," Working Papers P101, FERDI.
    14. Mohsen Bahmani-Oskooee & Hanafiah Harvey, 2018. "Is There J-Curve Effect In The Commodity Trade Of Singapore With Malaysia? An Empirical Study," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 63(03), pages 567-591, June.
    15. repec:gnv:wpaper:unige:77631 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Komain Jiranyakul, 2013. "Exchange Rate Uncertainty and Import Demand of Thailand," Asian Economic and Financial Review, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 3(10), pages 1269-1280, October.
    17. Hans‐Werner Sinn, 2006. "Das deutsche Rätsel: Warum wir Exportweltmeister und Schlusslicht zugleich sind," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 7(1), pages 1-18, February.
    18. Richard A. Brecher & Till Gross, 2019. "A minimum‐wage model of unemployment and growth: The case of a backward‐bending demand curve for labor," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 15(3), pages 297-309, September.
    19. Joerg Mayer, 2017. "How Could the South Respond to Secular Stagnation in the North?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(2), pages 314-335, February.
    20. Richard A. Brecher & Zhihao Yu, 2021. "Unemployment effects of trade with a low‐wage country: A minimum‐wage model with sector‐specific factors," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 402-408, May.
    21. Mohsen Bahmani-Oskooee & Javed Iqbal & Muhammad Muzammil, 2017. "Pakistan-EU Commodity Trade: Is there Evidence of J-Curve Effect?," Global Economy Journal (GEJ), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 17(2), pages 1-8, June.
    22. Ly Dai Hung, 2022. "Economic Growth and Inflation Tradeoffs within Global Stagflation: Evidence in Vietnam Economy," Working Papers hal-03774248, HAL.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:reviec:v:26:y:2018:i:1:p:165-170. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0965-7576 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.