Minimum Wages and Healthy Diet

R. Vincent Pohl (vincent.pohl@gmail.com), Kathryn L. Clark and Ryan C. Thomas

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: A healthy diet is often unaffordable for low-income individuals, so income-lifting policies may play an important role in not only alleviating poverty but also in improving nutrition. We investigate if higher minimum wages can contribute to an improved diet by increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables. Exploiting recent minimum wage increases in the U.S. and using individual-level data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System we identify the causal effect of minimum wage changes on fruit and vegetable intake among low-wage individuals in a triple-differences framework. Our results indicate that higher minimum wages contribute positively but moderately to improved nutrition.

Keywords: minimum wages; nutrition; healthy diet; fruit and vegetable consumption; triple-differences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 J38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-07-28
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-hea
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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