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The elasticity of labor demand and the minimum wage

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  • Leif Danziger

Abstract

We show that, contrary to widespread belief, low-pay workers do not generally prefer that the minimum wage rate be increased until the labor demand is unitary elastic. Rather, there exists a critical value of elasticity of labor demand so that increases in the minimum wage rate make low-pay workers better off for higher elasticities, but worse off for lower elasticities. This critical value decreases with unemployment benefits and increases with workers’ risk aversion. We also show that in some countries the benefits for long-term unemployed are so low that workers would probably prefer that the minimum wage rate be decreased.
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  • Leif Danziger, 2009. "The elasticity of labor demand and the minimum wage," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 22(3), pages 757-772, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jopoec:v:22:y:2009:i:3:p:757-772
    DOI: 10.1007/s00148-007-0179-y
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    Cited by:

    1. Boeri, Tito, 2012. "Setting the minimum wage," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 281-290.
    2. Eliav Danziger & Leif Danziger, 2024. "A Minimum Wage May Increase Exports and Firm Size Even with a Competitive Labor Market," CESifo Working Paper Series 10997, CESifo.
    3. Danziger, Eliav & Danziger, Leif, 2018. "The Optimal Graduated Minimum Wage and Social Welfare," IZA Discussion Papers 11386, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. John Bennett & Ioana Chioveanu, 2017. "The optimal minimum wage with regulatory uncertainty," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 19(6), pages 1099-1116, December.
    5. Eliav Danziger & Leif Danziger, 2018. "The Optimal Graduated Minimum Wage and Social Welfare," CESifo Working Paper Series 6943, CESifo.
    6. Marcus Dittrich, 2010. "Minimum Wages and Unemployment Benefits in a Unionized Economy: A Game-Theoretic Approach," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 11(2), pages 209-229, November.
    7. Eliav Danziger & Leif Danziger, 2015. "A Pareto-improving Minimum Wage," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 82(326), pages 236-252, April.
    8. Danziger, Eliav & Danziger, Leif, 2024. "A Minimum Wage May Increase Exports and Firm Size Even with a Competitive Labor Market," IZA Discussion Papers 16846, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Danziger, Eliav & Danziger, Leif, 2018. "The Optimal Graduated Minimum Wage and Social Welfare," GLO Discussion Paper Series 188, Global Labor Organization (GLO).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Elasticity of labor demand; Minimum wage; J38;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J38 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Public Policy

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