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A SURVEY OF THE EFFECTS OF THE MINIMUM WAGE ON PRICES
Author(s) -
Lemos Sara
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of economic surveys
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.657
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 1467-6419
pISSN - 0950-0804
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6419.2007.00532.x
Subject(s) - economics , minimum wage , wage , profit (economics) , labour economics , relevance (law) , distribution (mathematics) , dozen , microeconomics , mathematical analysis , mathematics , arithmetic , political science , law
It is well established in the literature that minimum wage increases compress the wage distribution. Firms respond to these higher labour costs by reducing employment, reducing profits, or raising prices. While there are hundreds of studies on the employment effect of the minimum wage, there are merely a handful of studies on its profit effects, and only a couple of dozen studies on its price effects. Furthermore, a comprehensive survey on minimum wage price effects is not available in the literature. Given the policy relevance of this neglected issue, in this paper we summarize and critically compare the available evidence on the effects of minimum wages on prices.