Product Market Evidence on the Employment Effects of the Minimum Wage

A-Tier
Journal: Journal of Labor Economics
Year: 2007
Volume: 25
Issue: 1
Pages: 167-200

Score contribution per author:

2.011 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 2.0x A-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

We infer the employment response to a minimum wage change by calibrating a model of employment for the restaurant industry. Whereas perfect competition implies that employment falls and prices rise after a minimum wage increase, the monopsony model potentially implies the opposite. We show that estimated price responses are consistent with the competitive model. We place fairly tight bounds on the employment response, with the most plausible parameter values suggesting that a 10% increase in the minimum wage lowers low-skill employment by 2%–4% and total restaurant employment by 1%–3%.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:ucp:jlabec:v:25:y:2007:p:167-200
Journal Field
Labor
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-24