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MINIMUM WAGES AND HEALTHY DIET
Author(s) -
Clark Kathryn L.,
Pohl R. Vincent,
Thomas Ryan C.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
contemporary economic policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.454
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1465-7287
pISSN - 1074-3529
DOI - 10.1111/coep.12463
Subject(s) - minimum wage , economics , consumption (sociology) , poverty , wage , low income , labour economics , demographic economics , economic growth , social science , sociology
A healthy diet is often unaffordable for low‐income individuals, so income‐lifting policies may play an important role in not only alleviating poverty but also in improving nutrition. We investigate if higher minimum wages can contribute to an improved diet by increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables. Exploiting recent minimum wage increases in the United States and using individual‐level data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System we identify the causal effect of minimum wage changes on fruit and vegetable intake among low‐wage individuals in a triple‐differences framework. The estimated minimum wage elasticity of fruit and vegetable consumption equals 0.12. ( JEL I12, I18, J38)