Optimal Minimum Wage in a Competitive Economy: an Alternative Modelling Approach

This paper analyzes whether a minimum wage can be an optimal redistribution policy when distorting taxes and lump-sum transfers are also available in a competitive economy. We build a static general equilibrium model with a Ramsey planner making decisions on taxes, transfers, and minimum wage levels. Workers are assumed to differ only in their productivity. We find that optimal redistribution may imply the use of a minimum wage. The key factor driving our results is the reaction of the demand for low skilled labor to the minimum wage law. Hence, an optimal minimum wage appears to be most likely when low skilled households are scarce, the complementarity between the two types of workers is large or the difference in productivity is small. The main contribution of the paper is a modelling approach that allows us to adopt analysis and solution techniques widely used in recent public finance research. Moreover, this modelling strategy is flexible enough to allow for potential extensions to include dynamics into the model.

Minimum Wage Regulation under Devolution in Northern Ireland

This paper assesses the development and functioning of regional minimum wage regulation in Northern Ireland in the interwar period under a federal form of devolution. Unlike current devolution arrangements in Scotland and Wales, this gave the Stormont Parliament powers over employment and minimum wage regulation. Northern Ireland Trade Boards were set up by the Ulster Unionist Government under the Trade Boards (Northern Ireland) Act 1923 and functioned along the same lines as those in Great Britain. Uniquely in the UK in this period, employer opposition resulted in the main Trade Board in the Irish Linen Industry being replaced by voluntary collective bargaining machinery. About one-quarter of employees were covered by minimum wage regulation, including two-thirds of females in Belfast, keeping a protective floor under low pay.

Publication selection bias in minimum-wage research? A meta-regression analysis

Card and Krueger's meta-analysis of the employment effects of minimum wages challenged existing theory. Unfortunately, their meta-analysis confused publication selection with the absence of a genuine empirical effect. We apply recently developed meta-analysis methods to 64 US minimum-wage studies and corroborate that Card and Krueger's findings were nevertheless correct. The minimum-wage effects literature is contaminated by publication selection bias, which we estimate to be slightly larger than the average reported minimum-wage effect. Once this publication selection is corrected, little or no evidence of a negative association between minimum wages and employment remains.

Does the UK minimum wage reduce employment? A meta-regression analysis

The employment effect from raising the minimum wage has long been studied but remains in dispute. Our meta-analysis of 236 estimated minimum wage elasticities and 710 partial correlation coefficients from 16 UK studies finds no overall practically significant adverse employment effect. Unlike US studies, there seems to be little, if any, overall reporting bias. Multivariate meta-regression analysis identifies several research dimensions that are associated with differential employment effects. In particular, the residential home care industry may exhibit a genuinely adverse employment effect.

The effects of the minimum wage on earnings and employment in Brazil

This paper analyzes the effects of the mlmmum wage on both, eammgs and employment, using a Brazilian rotating panel data (Pesquisa Mensal do Emprego - PME) which has a similar design to the US Current Population Survey (CPS). First an intuitive description of the data is done by graphical analysis. In particular, Kemel densities are used to show that an increase in the minimum wage compresses the eamings distribution. This graphical analysis is then forrnalized by descriptive models. This is followed by a discussion on identification and endogeneity that leads to the respecification of the model. Second, models for employment are estimated, using an interesting decomposition that makes it possible to separate out the effects of an increase in the minimum wage on number of hours and on posts of jobs. The main result is that an increase in the minimum wage was found to compress the eamings distribution, with a moderately small effect on the leveI of employment, contributing to alleviate inequality.

Raise the Minimum Wage

A Montana Public Radio Commentary by Evan Barrett. Published newspaper columns written by Evan Barrett on this topic, which vary somewhat in content from this commentary, appeared in the following publications: Montana Standard, November 25, 2013 Missoulian, November, 28, 2013

Conciliation act, 1896, and Industrial courts act, 1919. Report on conciliation and arbitration including particulars of proceedings under the Conciliation act, 1896, the Coal mines (minimum wage) act, 1912, the Wages (temporary regulation) acts, 1918 and 1919, the Restoration of pre-war practices act, 1919, and the Industrial courts act, 1919 ... 1919[-1920] ...

Title varies slightly.

Data pertinent to the establishment of minimum wage rates under the Fair labor standards act for employment newly covered by the amendments of 1966 in educational institutions in Puerto Rico /

"WH67-418."

Data pertinent to the establishment of minimum wage rates under the Fair labor standards act for newly covered employment in retail trade (including food service employees in retail establishments) in Puerto Rico /

"WH67-300."

Data pertinent to the establishment of minimum wage rates under the Fair labor standards act for employment in other newly covered activities industry in Puerto Rico /

"WH67-381."

Data pertinent to the establishment of minimum wage rates under the Fair labor standards act for employment newly covered by the 1966 amendments in agriculture in Puerto Rico /

"WH67-380."