The effect of minimum-wage laws on the distribution of employment: theory and evidence

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Lang, K; Kahn, S
• 署名单位: Boston University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/S0047-2727(97)00085-6
• 发表日期: 1998
• 页码: 67-82
• 关键词: minimum wages; search; unemployment

摘要

Recent research casts doubt on the view that minimum-wage laws reduce employment. We show that in a simple model of bilateral search with heterogeneous workers, a minimum-wage law increases employment. However, the increased competition from higher productivity workers makes lower productivity workers worse off without making higher productivity workers better off. We provide evidence that minimum-wage laws shift employment from adults to teenagers and students. This raises concerns about the distributional consequences of minimum wages even when they increase employment. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A.