This paper investigates possible spillover effects of the UK minimum wage. The halt in the growth in inequality in the lower half of the wage distribution (as measured by the 50:10 percentile ratio) since the mid 1990s, in contrast to the continued inequality growth in the upper half of the distribution, suggests the possibility of a minimum wage effect and spillover effects on wages above the ...

Local minimum wage laws are becoming common across U.S. cities, and their effects may be different from the effects of state or nationwide minimum wage policies. This paper studies the effect of changes in the minimum wage on spatial equilibriums in local labor markets. Using residence and workplace data for the United States, I analyze how commuting, residence, and employment locations change ...

This paper presents a simple model to characterize the discriminatory behavior of a non-complying firm in a minimum-wage economy. In the analysis, the violating firm pays one “favored” group of workers the statutory minimum and the other “non-favored” group of workers a sub-minimum. We find conditions under which law enforcement is ineffective in improving the between-group wage differentials. ...

Do Legal Standards Affect Ethical Concerns of Consumers? In order to address the impact of regulation on ethical concerns of consumers, we study the effect of a minimum wage. In our experimental market, consumers have monopsony power, firms engage in Bertrand competition, and workers are passive recipients of a wage payment. Two treatments are employed, one with no minimum wage in the first par...

Textbook analysis tells us that in a competitive labor market, the introduction of a minimum wage above the competitive equilibrium wage will cause unemployment. This paper makes two contributions to the basic theory of the minimum wage. First, we analyze the effects of a higher minimum wage in terms of poverty rather than in terms of unemployment. Second, we extend the standard textbook model ...

The Effect of the Minimum Wage on Prices in Brazil There is very little empirical evidence on the effects of the minimum wage on prices in the international literature and none whatsoever for developing countries. This paper estimates the minimum wage price effect using monthly Brazilian household and firm data from 1982 to 2000 aggregated at a regional level. Empirical evidence on price effect...

This paper develops and estimates a spatial general equilibrium job search model to study the effects of local and federal minimum wage policies. In the model, firms post vacancies in multiple locations. Workers, who are heterogeneous in terms of location and educational types, engage in random search and can migrate or commute in response to job offers. I estimate the model by combining multip...

This paper contributes to the policy debate on minimum wage by highlighting its role in enforcing compliance with fiscal rules in economies where underreporting of earnings is widespread. First, I propose a simple model exploring the interaction between the minimum wage and underreporting of earnings. Then, I provide supportive evidence by documenting a positive correlation within European labo...

Author(s): Godoey, Anna; Reich, Michael | Abstract: Empirical work on the minimum wage typically estimate effects averaged across high and low areas. Low labor markets could potentially be less able to absorb increases, in turn leading more negative employment effects. In this paper we examine counties, where relative ratios reach as .82, well beyond state-based extant studies. Using data from ...