The Highs and Lows of the Minimum Wage Effect: A Time-Series Cross-Section Study of the Canadian Law

Michael Baker, Dwayne Benjamin () and Shuchita Stanger

Journal of Labor Economics, 1999, vol. 17, issue 2, pages 318-50

Abstract: The authors examine the effects of minimum wage legislation in Canada over the period 1975-93. For teenagers we find that a 10 percent increase in the minimum wage is associated with roughly a 2.5 percent decrease in employment. They also find that this result is driven by low frequency variation in the data. At high frequencies the elasticity is positive and insignificant. The difference in the elasticity across the bandwidth has implications for the interpretation of employment dynamics as a result of minimum wage policy and experimental design in minimum wage studies. It also provides a simple reconciliation of the 'new minimum wage research,' which reports very small negative, or positive, elasticities. Copyright 1999 by University of Chicago Press.

Date: 1999
View citations in EconPapers

Downloads: (external link)
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0734-306X%2819990 ... O%3B2-B&origin=repec full text (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to JSTOR subscribers. See http://www.jstor.org for details.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucp:jlabec:v:17:y:1999:i:2:p:318-50

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JOLE/order1.html

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Labor Economics is edited by Derek A. Neal

More articles in Journal of Labor Economics from University of Chicago Press
Address: The University of Chicago Press, Journals Division, P.O. Box 37005 Chicago, IL 60637
Series data maintained by Christopher F. Baum ().