The principal means by which individuals and families achieve economic self-sufficiency is through labor market earnings. As a consequence, it is natural for policy makers to look to interventions that increase the ability of individuals and families to achieve an adequate standard of living...

This paper examines the impact of minimum wages on earnings and employment in selected branches of the retail-trade sector, 1990-2005, using county-level data on employment and a panel regression framework that allows for county-specific trends in sectoral outcomes...

This study examines how minimum wage laws affect the employment and earnings of low-skilled immigrants and natives in the U.S. Minimum wage increases might have larger effects among low-skilled immigrants than among natives because, on average, immigrants earn less than natives due to lower...

We show that, contrary to widespread belief, low-pay workers do not generally prefer that theminimum wage rate be increased until the labor demand is unitary elastic...

In many countries, non-compliance with minimum wage legislation is widespread, andauthorities may be seen as having turned a blind eye to a legislation that they havethemselves passed. But if enforcement is imperfect, how effective can a minimum wage be?And if non-compliance is widespread, why...

We review the burgeoning literature on the employment effects of minimum wages – in theUnited States and other countries – that was spurred by the new minimum wage researchbeginning in the early 1990s. Our review indicates that there is a wide range of existingestimates and, accordingly, a...

This paper looks at both the theoretical and empirical literature on capital controls and finds that capital controls can play an important role in developing countries by helping to insulate them from some of the harmful effects of volatile and short-term capital flows. The authors look at...

This paper analyzes the experience of the major Latin American countries including Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Peru and others in the post-World-War period, up to the crisis caused by the collapse of the U.S. housing bubble. The authors provide a detailed historical analysis that...