IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jlabre/v35y2014i3p227-245.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Effects of Minimum Wages over the Business Cycle

Author

Listed:
  • Joseph Sabia

Abstract

This study examines whether the low-skilled employment effects of minimum wage increases differ over the state business cycle. Controlling for spatial heterogeneity via state-specific productivity shocks to the low-skilled sector and state-specific non-linear time trends, the results suggest that minimum wage increases between 1989 and 2012 reduce low-skilled employment more during recessions than expansions. Estimated employment elasticities with respect to the minimum wage range from 0 to −0.2 during state economic expansions, but reach as high as −0.3 during troughs in the business cycle. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Joseph Sabia, 2014. "The Effects of Minimum Wages over the Business Cycle," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 35(3), pages 227-245, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:jlabre:v:35:y:2014:i:3:p:227-245
    DOI: 10.1007/s12122-014-9180-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s12122-014-9180-x
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s12122-014-9180-x?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sylvia A. Allegretto & Arindrajit Dube & Michael Reich, 2011. "Do Minimum Wages Really Reduce Teen Employment? Accounting for Heterogeneity and Selectivity in State Panel Data," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(2), pages 205-240, April.
    2. David Neumark & William L. Wascher, 2008. "Minimum Wages," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262141027, December.
    3. Joseph J. Sabia & Richard V. Burkhauser & Benjamin Hansen, 2012. "Are the Effects of Minimum Wage Increases Always Small? New Evidence from a Case Study of New York State," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 65(2), pages 350-376, April.
    4. Neumark, David & Wascher, William L., 2007. "Minimum Wages and Employment," Foundations and Trends(R) in Microeconomics, now publishers, vol. 3(1–2), pages 1-182, March.
    5. Brown,Clair & Eichengreen,Barry J. & Reich,Michael (ed.), 2009. "Labor in the Era of Globalization," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521195416.
    6. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "How Much Should We Trust Differences-In-Differences Estimates?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 249-275.
    7. Arindrajit Dube & T. William Lester & Michael Reich, 2010. "Minimum Wage Effects Across State Borders: Estimates Using Contiguous Counties," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 92(4), pages 945-964, November.
    8. Addison, John T. & Blackburn, McKinley L. & Cotti, Chad D., 2009. "Do minimum wages raise employment? Evidence from the U.S. retail-trade sector," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 397-408, August.
    9. Addison, John T. & Blackburn, McKinley L. & Cotti, Chad D., 2013. "Minimum wage increases in a recessionary environment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 30-39.
    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. Lance Wescher & Travis Hutchinson & Anna Rannou, 2019. "Minimum Wages, Employment, and College Enrollment," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 64(1), pages 3-18, March.
    2. Hyunbae Chun & Jungmin Lee & Donghan Shin, 2024. "Does the Minimum Wage Affect Non-wage Workers?," Korean Economic Review, Korean Economic Association, vol. 40, pages 5-47.
    3. David Maré & Dean Hyslop, 2021. "Minimum Wages in New Zealand: Policy and practice in the 21st century," Working Papers 21_03, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research.
    4. Chu, Angus C. & Kou, Zonglai & Wang, Xilin, 2020. "Dynamic effects of minimum wage on growth and innovation in a Schumpeterian economy," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    5. Sebastian Fossati & Joseph Marchand, 2024. "First to $15: Alberta’s Minimum Wage Policy on Employment by Wages, Ages, and Places," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 77(1), pages 119-142, January.
    6. Fossati, Sebastian & Marchand, Joseph, 2020. "First to $15: Alberta's Minimum Wage Policy on Employment by Wages, Ages, and Places," Working Papers 2020-15, University of Alberta, Department of Economics, revised 27 Jul 2023.
    7. Fone, Zachary S. & Sabia, Joseph J. & Cesur, Resul, 2023. "The unintended effects of minimum wage increases on crime," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 219(C).
    8. Joseph Marchand, 2017. "Thinking about Minimum Wage Increases in Alberta: Theoretically, Empirically, and Regionally," C.D. Howe Institute Commentary, C.D. Howe Institute, issue 491, pages 1-20, September.
    9. Garth Heutel & Christopher J. Ruhm, 2016. "Air Pollution and Procyclical Mortality," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 3(3), pages 667-706.
    10. Zachary S. Fone & Joseph J. Sabia & Resul Cesur, 2019. "Do Minimum Wage Increases Reduce Crime?," NBER Working Papers 25647, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Congressional Budget Office, 2019. "The Effects on Employment and Family Income of Increasing the Federal Minimum Wage," Reports 55410, Congressional Budget Office.
    12. Joseph J. Sabia & Richard V. Burkhauser & Taylor Mackay, 2018. "Minimum Cash Wages, Tipped Restaurant Workers, and Poverty," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(4), pages 637-670, October.
    13. Joseph J. Sabia, 2015. "Do minimum wages stimulate productivity and growth?," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 221-221, December.
    14. Richard V. Burkhauser & Drew McNichols & Joseph J. Sabia, 2023. "Minimum Wages and Poverty: New Evidence from Dynamic Difference-in-Differences Estimates," NBER Working Papers 31182, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Laura Argys & M. Melinda Pitts & Joseph J. Sabia, 2014. "Do Minimum Wages Really Increase Youth Drinking and Drunk Driving?," FRB Atlanta Working Paper 2014-20, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
    16. Luke G. Fitzpatrick, 2018. "Surface Coal Mining and Human Health: Evidence from West Virginia," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 84(4), pages 1109-1128, April.

    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. John Addison & McKinley Blackburn & Chad Cotti, 2015. "On the robustness of minimum wage effects: geographically-disparate trends and job growth equations," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-16, December.
    2. John Addison & McKinley Blackburn & Chad Cotti, 2015. "On the robustness of minimum wage effects: geographically-disparate trends and job growth equations," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-16, December.
    3. David Neumark & J.M. Ian Salas & William Wascher, 2013. "Revisiting the Minimum Wage-Employment Debate: Throwing Out the Baby with the Bathwater?," NBER Working Papers 18681, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. David Slichter, 2023. "The employment effects of the minimum wage: A selection ratio approach to measuring treatment effects," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(3), pages 334-357, April.
    5. Jonathan Meer & Jeremy West, 2016. "Effects of the Minimum Wage on Employment Dynamics," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 51(2), pages 500-522.
    6. Lordan, Grace & Neumark, David, 2018. "People versus machines: The impact of minimum wages on automatable jobs," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 40-53.
    7. David Neumark & Peter Shirley, 2021. "Myth or Measurement: What Does the New Minimum Wage Research Say about Minimum Wages and Job Loss in the United States?," NBER Working Papers 28388, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. 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.
    9. Clemens, Jeffrey & Wither, Michael, 2019. "The minimum wage and the Great Recession: Evidence of effects on the employment and income trajectories of low-skilled workers," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 53-67.
    10. Addison, John T. & Blackburn, McKinley L. & Cotti, Chad D., 2013. "Minimum wage increases in a recessionary environment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 30-39.
    11. David Neumark & Peter Shirley, 2022. "Myth or measurement: What does the new minimum wage research say about minimum wages and job loss in the United States?," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(4), pages 384-417, October.
    12. Daniel Aaronson & Brian J Phelan, 2019. "Wage Shocks and the Technological Substitution of Low‐wage Jobs," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 129(617), pages 1-34.
    13. Evan Totty, 2017. "The Effect Of Minimum Wages On Employment: A Factor Model Approach," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 55(4), pages 1712-1737, October.
    14. Richard V. Burkhauser & Drew McNichols & Joseph J. Sabia, 2023. "Minimum Wages and Poverty: New Evidence from Dynamic Difference-in-Differences Estimates," NBER Working Papers 31182, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. McKinnish, Terra, 2017. "Cross-state differences in the minimum wage and out-of-state commuting by low-wage workers," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 137-147.
    16. Laura Argys & M. Melinda Pitts & Joseph J. Sabia, 2014. "Do Minimum Wages Really Increase Youth Drinking and Drunk Driving?," FRB Atlanta Working Paper 2014-20, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
    17. Boffy-Ramirez, Ernest, 2019. "The Short-Run Effects of the Minimum Wage on Employment and Labor Market Participation: Evidence from an Individual-Level Panel," IZA Discussion Papers 12137, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. David Neumark, 2016. "Policy levers to increase jobs and increase income from work after the Great Recession," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-38, December.
    19. Kate Rybczynski & Anindya Sen, 2018. "Employment Effects Of The Minimum Wage: Panel Data Evidence From Canadian Provinces," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 36(1), pages 116-135, January.
    20. David Neumark, 2018. "Employment effects of minimum wages," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 1-6, December.

    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:spr:jlabre:v:35:y:2014:i:3:p:227-245. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.