Intended and Unintended Impacts of Minimum Wage Change: The Pivotal Role of Migration in the Philippines

Deborah Kim Sy and Nobuhiro Hosoe
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Deborah Kim Sy: National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Tokyo, Japan

No 22-08, GRIPS Discussion Papers from National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies

Abstract: Minimum wage is used as a support for low-wage workers, but it is expected to increase unemployment and cause deterioration of the welfare of the unemployed. While earlier studies identify negative side effects of minimum wage, that may not be the case in the Philippines, where many workers migrate and send home large remittances. This study uses a computable general equilibrium model to examine the impacts of an increase in the domestic minimum wage on unemployment, migration, and output, as well as on welfare and inequality, in the Philippines. Our simulation results show that a minimum wage increase would indeed reduce domestic labor demand and prompt many unemployed workers to migrate out, leaving relatively few unemployed at home. While an increased volume of remittances would improve household welfare, it would also have some unintended effects, such as currency appreciation; decreased domestic production in labor-intensive and export-oriented industries; greater income disparity; and tax base erosion.

Keywords: Minimum wage; International Migration; Remittances; Income Inequality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41 pages
Date: 2022-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-int, nep-mig and nep-sea
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ngi:dpaper:22-08

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