The Effects of Minimum Wages on Teenage Employment and Enrollment: Evidence from Matched CPS Surveys / David Neumark, William Wascher.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Neumark, David.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Wascher, William.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w5092.

NBER working paper series no. w5092

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

The Effects of Minimum Wages on Teenage Employment and Enrollment

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 1995.

Summary:

The recent debate over minimum wages raises two questions. First, should policy makers no longer believe that minimum wages entail negative consequences for teenagers? Second, should economists discard the competitive labor market model? Our evidence for teenagers, using matched CPS surveys, suggests that the answer to both of these questions is no. We find that although increases in minimum wages have small net effects on overall teen employment rates, such increases raise the probability that more-skilled teenagers leave school and displace lower-skilled workers from their jobs. These findings are consistent with the predictions of a competitive labor market model that recognizes skill differences among workers. In addition, we find that the displaced lower-skilled workers are more likely to end up non-enrolled and non-employed. Thus, despite the small net disemployment effects for teenagers as a group, there are significant enrollment and employment shifts associated with minimum wage changes that should be of concern to policy makers.

Notes:

Print version record

April 1995.