We explain the public's support for the minimum wage (MW) institution despite economists' warnings that the MW is a "blunt instrument" for redistribution. To do so we build a model in which workers are heterogeneous in ability, and the government engages in redistribution through the public...

Previous literature on the distributional impact of the minimum wage in Germany has either focused on earnings and hourly wages (Caliendo et al., 2017), or is based on exante simulations (Müller and Steiner, 2013). This paper provides systematic descriptive ex-post evidence on the...

We study the effect of the introduction of the German statutory minimum wage law in 2015 on teenagers' educational expectations. We focus on low-skilled students, the group most likely to be affected by the minimum wage after entering the labor market. Theoretical predictions of the effect of...