IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/amposc/v63y2019i2p401-410.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Responsiveness without Representation: Evidence from Minimum Wage Laws in U.S. States

Author

Listed:
  • Gabor Simonovits
  • Andrew M. Guess
  • Jonathan Nagler

Abstract

How well does public policy represent mass preferences in U.S. states? Current approaches provide an incomplete account of statehouse democracy because they fail to compare preferences and policies on meaningful scales. Here, we overcome this problem by generating estimates of Americans' preferences on the minimum wage and compare them to observed policies both within and across states. Because we measure both preferences and policies on the same scale (U.S. dollars), we can quantify both the association of policy outcomes with preferences across states (responsiveness) and their deviation within states (bias). We demonstrate that while minimum wages respond to corresponding preferences across states, policy outcomes are more conservative than preferences in each state, with the average policy bias amounting to about two dollars. We also show that policy bias is substantially smaller in states with access to direct democratic institutions.

Suggested Citation

  • Gabor Simonovits & Andrew M. Guess & Jonathan Nagler, 2019. "Responsiveness without Representation: Evidence from Minimum Wage Laws in U.S. States," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 63(2), pages 401-410, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:amposc:v:63:y:2019:i:2:p:401-410
    DOI: 10.1111/ajps.12412
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12412
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/ajps.12412?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Card, David & Krueger, Alan B, 1994. "Minimum Wages and Employment: A Case Study of the Fast-Food Industry in New Jersey and Pennsylvania," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(4), pages 772-793, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wittels, Annabelle Sophie, 2020. "The effect of politician-constituent conflict on bureaucratic responsiveness under varying information frames," SocArXiv 4x8q2, Center for Open Science.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vimal Ranchhod & Arden Finn, 2016. "Estimating the Short Run Effects of South Africa's Employment Tax Incentive on Youth Employment Probabilities using A Difference-in-Differences Approach," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 84(2), pages 199-216, June.
    2. Dickens, Richard & Machin, Stephen & Manning, Alan, 1998. "Estimating the effect of minimum wages on employment from the distribution of wages: A critical view," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 109-134, June.
    3. Pearce Edwards & Patrick Pierson, 2023. "Incumbent-Aligned Terrorism and Voting Behavior: Evidence from Argentina’s 1973 Elections," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 67(4), pages 672-700, April.
    4. Peter Harasztosi & Attila Lindner, 2019. "Who Pays for the Minimum Wage?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(8), pages 2693-2727, August.
    5. José Azar & Emiliano Huet & Ioana Marinescu & Bledi Taska & Till von, 2024. "Minimum Wage Employment Effects and Labour Market Concentration," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 91(4), pages 1843-1883.
    6. Derk Bienen, 2002. "Mindestlohnreformen in Südamerika – ökonomische Rechtfertigung und praktische Umsetzung," Ibero America Institute for Econ. Research (IAI) Discussion Papers 090, Ibero-America Institute for Economic Research.
    7. Maria Marimpi & Pierre Koning, 2018. "Youth minimum wages and youth employment," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 7(1), pages 1-18, December.
    8. Marianna Kudlyak & Murat Tasci & Didem Tuzemen, 2019. "Minimum Wage Increases and Vacancies," Working Papers 19-30R, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, revised 21 Apr 2022.
    9. Kyota Eguchi, 2010. "Minimum Wages and Trainers' Dilemma," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 24(2), pages 128-138, June.
    10. Mark B. Stewart, 2004. "The Impact of the Introduction of the U.K. Minimum Wage on the Employment Probabilities of Low-Wage Workers," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 2(1), pages 67-97, March.
    11. Scott Alan Carson & Scott A. Carson, 2022. "Nineteenth and Early 20th Century Physical Activity and Calories by Gender and Race," CESifo Working Paper Series 10140, CESifo.
    12. Omar Al-Ubaydli & John A. List, 2019. "How natural field experiments have enhanced our understanding of unemployment," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 3(1), pages 33-39, January.
    13. Christos Genakos & Mario Pagliero, 2022. "Competition and Pass-Through: Evidence from Isolated Markets," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 14(4), pages 35-57, October.
    14. Emilie Jašová & Klára Čermáková & Božena Kadeřábková & Pavel Procházka, 2016. "Působení institucionálních faktorů na strukturální a cyklickou nezaměstnanost v zemích Visegrádské skupiny [Influence of Institutional Factors on Structural and Cyclical Unemployment in the Countri," Politická ekonomie, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2016(1), pages 34-50.
    15. Phan Kim Dung, 2017. "The effects of minimum wage hikes on employment and wages in Vietnam’s micro, small, and medium enterprises," WIDER Working Paper Series 095, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    16. Dütsch Matthias & Ohlert Clemens & Baumann Arne, 2025. "The Minimum Wage in Germany: Institutional Setting and a Systematic Review of Key Findings," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 245(1-2), pages 113-151.
    17. Theodore Koutmeridis, 2013. "The Market for "Rough Diamonds": Information, Finance and Wage Inequality," CDMA Working Paper Series 201307, Centre for Dynamic Macroeconomic Analysis, revised 14 Oct 2013.
    18. Mayda, Anna Maria & Ortega, Francesc & Peri, Giovanni & Shih, Kevin & Sparber, Chad, 2018. "The effect of the H-1B quota on the employment and selection of foreign-born labor," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 105-128.
    19. Lemos Sara, 2005. "Political Variables as Instruments for the Minimum Wage," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 4(1), pages 1-31, December.
    20. Adamopoulou, Effrosyni & Manaresi, Francesco & Rachedi, Omar & Yurdagul, Emircan, 2021. "Minimum Wages and Insurance within the Firm," IZA Discussion Papers 14943, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:amposc:v:63:y:2019:i:2:p:401-410. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1540-5907 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.