题目： Labor Market Outcomes of Minimum Wage Changes: A Behavioral Perspective
主讲人：王曈
时间：2021-04-01
地点：
摘要：
Minimum wage is one of the most important labor market policies across countries. For the unskilled workers, minimum wage is a reference norm in fairness considerations, as well as a wage floor. This paper provides a theoretical analysis of the behavioral and labor market implications of minimum wage changes considering the dual role of minimum wage in a search and matching framework. As a wage floor, the minimum wage hike pushes up wage of the unskilled and reduces labor demand. As a reference norm, the minimum wage influences unskilled worker's perception of fairness. The unskilled worker evaluates the degree of fairness in a labor relation by comparing the individual wage and minimum wage, and the degree of policy bite, namely the ratio between wage and minimum wage changes, plays a role in determining the equilibrium effort and employment level. As long as the policy bite is smaller than one, the shortfall of actual wage change from the minimum wage hike demoralizes unskilled workers and further reduces employment. Moreover, by modeling a control group free from minimum wage hike, the current study proposes a business-cycle augmented policy bite and shows that the job loss from minimum wage hike is countercyclical.