This paper considers optimal minimum wage policy in a low-ability labor market in the presence of a subsistence allowance and a participation externality. In a market with heterogenous workers and homogeneous low-skilled jobs, a low ability worker's participation decision has a chilling effect...

Using a search model, I derive formula that links the welfare gains from the minimum wage to its effect on low-skilled labor force participation and employment. This formula shows that the minimum wage is welfare improving if pushing the low-skilled labor market tightness downwards brings it...

Using a search model, I derive formula that links the welfare gains from the minimum wage to its effect on low-skilled labor force participation and employment. This formula shows that the minimum wage is welfare improving if pushing the low-skilled labor market tightness downwards brings it...

In this paper we study the endogenous determination of minimum wage employing a political-economic game-theoretic approach. A major objective of the paper is to clarify the crucial role of the strength of the workers' union and of political culture on the determination of the minimum wage. In...

What is the economic case for increasing the federal minimum wage?To even posit that question sounds odd. Proponents of a higher minimum wage claim that the policy change could alleviate all sorts of economic and social ills. But it's worth assessing, from first principles, the economic...

Exploiting a unique natural experiment,we showthe asymmetric effects of a large increase and an equivalent subsequent decrease to a binding minimum wage. Wages in a leading low-wage industry increase as the minimumwage rises, but do not fall when it is lowered. This boost for low-wage workers'...