IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/8681.html

Minimum Wages and Labor Supply in an Emerging Market : The Case of Mauritius

Author

Listed:
  • Asmal,Zaakhir
  • Bhorat,Haroon Ismail
  • Kanbur,Ravi
  • Ranzani,Marco
  • Paci,Pierella

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of multiple minimum wages, known as remuneration orders, on employment and working hours in Mauritius. Using data between 2004 and 2014, the analysis indicates that a 10 percent increase in the minimum wages brings about a slightly positive effect on employment in the covered sector, with an estimated employment elasticity of 0.113, which is within the range of elasticities found in previous studies of employment effects of minimum wages in low- and middle-income countries. The positive employment effect of minimum wages is also associated with a 2.3 percent increase in average working hours for men but a 1.8 percent decline in average working hours for women in the covered sector. In the uncovered sector, the significant positive effect along the intensive margin, estimated at 4.2 percent, is driven by changes in labor supply among men.

Suggested Citation

  • Asmal,Zaakhir & Bhorat,Haroon Ismail & Kanbur,Ravi & Ranzani,Marco & Paci,Pierella, 2018. "Minimum Wages and Labor Supply in an Emerging Market : The Case of Mauritius," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8681, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:8681
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/108361545148341118/pdf/WPS8681.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Ravi Kanbur, 2019. "Inequality in a global perspective," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 35(3), pages 431-444.
    2. Lestari Agusalim & Hermanto Siregar & Lukytawati Anggraeni & Sri Mulatsih, 2025. "The Heterogeneous Effects of a Minimum Wage Policy on Hours Worked and Real Wages in Indonesia," Economic Research Guardian, Mutascu Publishing, vol. 15(1), pages 88-115, June.
    3. Neumark, David & Munguía Corella, Luis Felipe, 2021. "Do minimum wages reduce employment in developing countries? A survey and exploration of conflicting evidence," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • 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

    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:wbk:wbrwps:8681. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Roula I. Yazigi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.html .

    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.