Do minimum wages improve self-rated health? Evidence from a natural experiment

Lucas Hafner

No 02/2019, FAU Discussion Papers in Economics from Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Institute for Economics

Abstract: In this paper I evaluate a labor market reform in Germany. In particular, I analyze whether the introduction of the general minimum wage in 2015 had an effect on self-rated health and labor market outcomes of individuals who were likely affected by the reform. I exploit the plausibly exogenous variation in hourly wages induced by the natural policy experiment and apply difference-in-difference analysis combined with propensity score matching. I use survey-data combined with administrative records which enables me to control for a vast set of possibly confounding variables. I find on average significant improvements of self-rated health for individuals who are affected by the reform. My analysis indicates, that reduced stress, due to a significant reduction of weekly working hours potentially drives this result.

Keywords: minimum wage; self-rated health; natural experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur and nep-hea
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:iwqwdp:022019

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