American Economic Journal:
Applied Economics
ISSN 1945-7782 (Print) | ISSN 1945-7790 (Online)
Minimum Wages and the Distribution of Family Incomes
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
vol. 11,
no. 4, October 2019
(pp. 268–304)
(Complimentary)
Abstract
There is robust evidence that higher minimum wages increase family incomes at the bottom of the distribution. The long-run (3 or more years) minimum wage elasticity of the non-elderly poverty rate with respect to the minimum wage ranges between −0.220 and −0.459 across alternative specifications. The long-run minimum wage elasticities for the tenth and fifteenth unconditional quantiles of family income range between 0.152 and 0.430 depending on specification. A reduction in public assistance partly offsets these income gains, which are on average 66 percent as large when using an expanded income definition including tax credits and noncash transfers.Citation
Dube, Arindrajit. 2019. "Minimum Wages and the Distribution of Family Incomes." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 11 (4): 268–304. DOI: 10.1257/app.20170085Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D31 Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions
- I32 Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
- I38 Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty: Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
- J31 Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
- J38 Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs: Public Policy
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