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Cited by 43Labor market dynamics and wage inequalityHistorical Economic and Social StudiesGender, Labor, and Family Dynamics

Effects of the Minimum Wage on Employment Dynamics

Open access
Meer, Jonathan, West, Jeremy·2013·National Bureau of Economic Research
DOI 10.3386/w19262
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Abstract

The voluminous literature on minimum wages offers little consensus on the extent to which a wage floor impacts employment.We argue that the minimum wage will impact employment over time, through changes in growth rather than an immediate drop in relative employment levels.We conduct simulations showing that commonly-used specifications in this literature, especially those that include state-specific time trends, will not accurately capture these effects.Using three separate state panels of administrative employment data, we find that the minimum wage reduces job growth over a period of several years.These effects are most pronounced for younger workers and in industries with a higher proportion of low-wage workers.

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  • The 2x2 DD that compares the later group to the earlier group is biased and, in the linear trend-break case, weakly negative despite a positive and growing treatment effect.

    “The 2x2 DD that compares the later group to the earlier group is biased and, in the linear trend-break case, weakly negative despite a positive and growing treatment effect.”

    From Difference-in-differences with variation in treatment timing (2021) · cites this paper as Meer and West 2013

    Section 2.1 shows that staggered treatment with an effect on growth can make a DiD estimate misleading, and that the estimate can be negative under one choice of time periods. It does not describe a weakly negative estimate despite a positive, growing treatment effect: its example has a negative effect on employment growth, and the estimate can be negative, positive, or zero depending on period lengths. Page numbers are unavailable in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.88)

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Research works printed but not linked: 28

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  21. Pia M. Orrenius and Madeline Zavodny. The effect of minimum wages on immigrants' employment and earnings. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 61(4):544-563, July 2008.
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Authors
Meer, J., & West, J.
Affiliations
National Bureau of Economic Research (US)
ORCID
Venue
National Bureau of Economic Research
Publisher
National Bureau of Economic Research
Published
2013-08
DOI
10.3386/w19262
OpenAlex
W4303113410
Cited by
43
References
3
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 2
Type
report
Language
en
Open access
Locations
National Bureau of Economic Research (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Labor market dynamics and wage inequality
  • Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Historical Economic and Social Studies
  • Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics
Keywords
minimum wage, employment dynamics, job growth, wage floor, young workers, low-wage industries

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