Who Pays for the Minimum Wage?

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Harasztosi, Peter; Lindner, Attila
• 署名单位: European Commission Joint Research Centre; EC JRC ISPRA Site; University of London; University College London
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20171445
• 发表日期: 2019
• 页码: 2693-2727
• 关键词: employment; PRODUCTIVITY; elasticities; responses; industry

摘要

This paper provides a comprehensive assessment of the margins along which firms responded to a large and persistent minimum wage increase in Hungary. We show that employment elasticities are negative but small even four years after the reform; that around 75 percent of the minimum wage increase was paid by consumers and 25 percent by firm owners; that firms responded to the minimum wage by substituting labor with capital; and that disemployment effects were greater in industries where passing the wage costs to consumers is more difficult. We estimate a model with monopolistic competition to explain these findings.