What happens when a previously uncovered labor market is regulated? We exploit the introduction of a minimum wage in South Africa and variation in the intensity of this law to identify increases in wages and formal contract coverage, and no significant effects on employment on the intensive or...

We generate a longitudinal dataset using the rotating panel component of the nationally representative Labour Force Surveys from 2001 to 2003. We then estimate the transition probabilities across different labour market states over a six month period. We find that unemployed searchers are more...