Age-differentiated minimum wages in developing countries

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Larrain, Mauricio; Poblete, Joaquin
• 署名单位: Northwestern University; University of California System; University of California Berkeley
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3878
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2006.05.008
• 发表日期: 2007
• 页码: 777-797
• 关键词: age-differentiated minimum wage; Income distribution; wealth distribution; uncovered sector

摘要

The fact that minimum wages seem especially binding for young workers has led some countries to adopt age-differentiated minimum wages. We develop a dynamic competitive two-sector labor market model where workers with heterogeneous initial skills gain productivity through experience. We compare two equally binding schemes of single and age-differentiated minimum wages, and find that although differentiated minimum wages result in a more equal distribution of income, such a scheme creates a more unequal distribution of wealth by forcing less skilled workers to remain longer in the uncovered sector. We also show that relaxing minimum wage solely for young workers reduces youth unemployment but hanns the less skilled ones. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.