IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_7273.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Subminimum Wage Reform in Greece and the Labour-Labour Substitution Hypothesis

Author

Listed:
  • Theano Kakoulidou
  • Panagiotis Konstantinou
  • Thomas Moutos

Abstract

The paper examines the effects of the age-differentiated decreases in the minimum wage which Greece implemented in 2012, and which involved the introduction of a subminimum wage as a result of the reduction of the minimum wage by 22% for workers aged 25 and above, and by 32% for those aged less than 25. Using data from the Greek Labor Force Survey, we estimate probit models and find that after the reform there was no statistically significant change in the differential employment probability advantage for private sector employees aged 25-27 over those aged 22-24. We also find that the probability of labour force participation for individuals in the 25-27 group becomes significantly higher (relative to the 22-24 group), which is reflected in a (statistically) significant improvement in the relative job finding rate for non-agricultural, private-sector employees of this group after the reform. Moreover, the reform had no significant differential impact on employment terminations; i.e. it had no differential impact on either dismissals or quits. These findings remain unaltered to a series of robustness checks.

Suggested Citation

  • Theano Kakoulidou & Panagiotis Konstantinou & Thomas Moutos, 2018. "The Subminimum Wage Reform in Greece and the Labour-Labour Substitution Hypothesis," CESifo Working Paper Series 7273, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7273
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp7273.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Emmanuel Saez & Benjamin Schoefer & David Seim, 2019. "Payroll Taxes, Firm Behavior, and Rent Sharing: Evidence from a Young Workers' Tax Cut in Sweden," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(5), pages 1717-1763, May.
    2. 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.
    3. Sylvia A. Allegretto & Arindrajit Dube & Michael Reich, 2011. "Do Minimum Wages Really Reduce Teen Employment? Accounting for Heterogeneity and Selectivity in State Panel Data," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(2), pages 205-240, April.
    4. David Card, 1992. "Do Minimum Wages Reduce Employment? A Case Study of California, 1987–89," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 46(1), pages 38-54, October.
    5. Machin, Stephen & Manning, Alan, 1997. "Minimum wages and economic outcomes in Europe," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 41(3-5), pages 733-742, April.
    6. David Neumark & J. M. Ian Salas & William Wascher, 2014. "Revisiting the Minimum Wage—Employment Debate: Throwing Out the Baby with the Bathwater?," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 67(3_suppl), pages 608-648, May.
    7. Juan Dolado & Francis Kramarz & Steven Machin & Alan Manning & David Margolis & Coen Teulings, 1996. "The Economic Impact of Minimum Wages in Europe," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00353896, HAL.
    8. Hyslop, Dean & Stillman, Steven, 2007. "Youth minimum wage reform and the labour market in New Zealand," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 201-230, April.
    9. Pereira, Sonia C., 2003. "The impact of minimum wages on youth employment in Portugal," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 229-244, April.
    10. David Card, 1992. "Using Regional Variation in Wages to Measure the Effects of the Federal Minimum Wage," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 46(1), pages 22-37, October.
    11. Doruk Cengiz & Arindrajit Dube & Attila Lindner & Ben Zipperer, 2018. "The effect of minimum wages on low-wage jobs: evidence from the United States using a bunching estimator," CEP Discussion Papers dp1531, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    12. Alan B. Krueger & David Card, 2000. "Minimum Wages and Employment: A Case Study of the Fast-Food Industry in New Jersey and Pennsylvania: Reply," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(5), pages 1397-1420, December.
    13. Lang, Kevin & Kahn, Shulamit, 1998. "The effect of minimum-wage laws on the distribution of employment: theory and evidence," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 67-82, July.
    14. Evan Totty, 2017. "The Effect Of Minimum Wages On Employment: A Factor Model Approach," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 55(4), pages 1712-1737, October.
    15. William Wascher & David Neumark, 2000. "Minimum Wages and Employment: A Case Study of the Fast-Food Industry in New Jersey and Pennsylvania: Comment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(5), pages 1362-1396, December.
    16. Richard Dickens & Alan Manning, 2004. "Spikes and spill-overs: The impact of the national minimum wage on the wage distribution in a low-wage sector," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 114(494), pages 95-101, March.
    17. Peter Harasztosi & Attila Lindner, 2019. "Who Pays for the Minimum Wage?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(8), pages 2693-2727, August.
    18. Horrace, William C. & Oaxaca, Ronald L., 2006. "Results on the bias and inconsistency of ordinary least squares for the linear probability model," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 90(3), pages 321-327, March.
    19. David Card, 1992. "Using Regional Variation in Wages to Measure the Effects of the Federal Minimum Wage," Working Papers 680, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    20. Isaac Sorkin, 2015. "Are There Long-Run Effects of the Minimum Wage?," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 18(2), pages 306-333, April.
    21. repec:fth:prinin:300 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. David Fairris & Leon Fernandez Bujanda, 2008. "The Dissipation of Minimum Wage Gains for Workers through Labor-Labor Substitution: Evidence from the Los Angeles Living Wage Ordinance," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 75(2), pages 473-496, October.
    23. Arindrajit Dube & T. William Lester & Michael Reich, 2010. "Minimum Wage Effects Across State Borders: Estimates Using Contiguous Counties," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 92(4), pages 945-964, November.
    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. Andriopoulou Eirini & Karakitsios Alexandros, 2022. "Unemployment transitions and the role of minimum wage: From pre-crisis to crisis and recovery," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 12(1), pages 1-26, January.
    2. Roupakias, Stelios, 2022. "Employment and distributional effects of Greece’s national minimum wage," MPRA Paper 114244, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Andreas Georgiadis & Ioannis Kaplanis & Vassilis Monastiriotis, 2018. "Greece after the Bailouts: The Impact of Minimum Wages on Wages and Employment: Evidence from Greece," GreeSE – Hellenic Observatory Papers on Greece and Southeast Europe 131, Hellenic Observatory, LSE.
    4. Georgiadis, Andreas & Kaplanis, Ioannis & Monastiriotis, Vassilis, 2018. "The impact of minimum wages on wages and employment: evidence from Greece," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 91959, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Bechlioulis, Alexandros & Chletsos, Michael, 2021. "The differentiated effects of minimum wage reforms on unemployment Evidence from the Greek labor market," MPRA Paper 109327, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    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. Neumark David, 2019. "The Econometrics and Economics of the Employment Effects of Minimum Wages: Getting from Known Unknowns to Known Knowns," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 20(3), pages 293-329, August.
    2. Arindrajit Dube & Attila Lindner, 2024. "Minimum Wages in the 21st Century," RF Berlin - CReAM Discussion Paper Series 2524, Rockwool Foundation Berlin (RF Berlin) - Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM).
    3. David Neumark & Peter Shirley, 2022. "Myth or measurement: What does the new minimum wage research say about minimum wages and job loss in the United States?," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(4), pages 384-417, October.
    4. Bechlioulis, Alexandros & Chletsos, Michael, 2021. "The differentiated effects of minimum wage reforms on unemployment Evidence from the Greek labor market," MPRA Paper 109327, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. David Neumark, 2017. "The Employment Effects of Minimum Wages: Some Questions We Need to Answer," NBER Working Papers 23584, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Marlies Piek & Dieter von Fintel, 2020. "Sectoral minimum wages in South Africa: Disemployment by firm size and trade exposure," Development Southern Africa, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(3), pages 462-482, May.
    7. John Schmitt, 2015. "Explaining the Small Employment Effects of the Minimum Wage in the United States," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(4), pages 547-581, October.
    8. Yonezawa, Koichi & Gómez, Miguel I. & McLaughlin, Edward W., 2022. "Impacts of Minimum Wage Increases in the US Retail Sector: Full-Time versus Part-Time Employment," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 47(2), May.
    9. David Slichter, 2023. "The employment effects of the minimum wage: A selection ratio approach to measuring treatment effects," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(3), pages 334-357, April.
    10. Philipp Berge & Hanna Frings, 2020. "High-impact minimum wages and heterogeneous regions," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 59(2), pages 701-729, August.
    11. Marius Berger & Bruno Lanz, 2020. "Minimum wage regulation in Switzerland: survey evidence for restaurants in the canton of Neuchâtel," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, Springer;Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics, vol. 156(1), pages 1-23, December.
    12. Mario Bossler & Hans-Dieter Gerner, 2020. "Employment Effects of the New German Minimum Wage: Evidence from Establishment-Level Microdata," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 73(5), pages 1070-1094, October.
    13. Loukas Karabarbounis & Jeremy Lise & Anusha Nath, 2022. "Minimum Wages and Labor Markets in the Twin Cities," Working Papers 793, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    14. Kla Kouadio & Moreno-Galbis Eva, 2024. "Minimum wage and racial marriage gap," French Stata Users' Group Meetings 2024 06, Stata Users Group.
    15. Friedrich Martin, 2020. "Using Occupations to Evaluate the Employment Effects of the German Minimum Wage," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 240(2-3), pages 269-294, April.
    16. Christian Ragacs, 2003. "Mindestlöhne und Beschäftigung: Ein Überblick über die neuere empirische Literatur," Working Papers geewp25, Vienna University of Economics and Business Research Group: Growth and Employment in Europe: Sustainability and Competitiveness.
    17. repec:zbw:rwirep:0408 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Laura Giuliano, 2013. "Minimum Wage Effects on Employment, Substitution, and the Teenage Labor Supply: Evidence from Personnel Data," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 31(1), pages 155-194.
    19. Committee, Nobel Prize, 2021. "Answering causal questions using observational data," Nobel Prize in Economics documents 2021-2, Nobel Prize Committee.
    20. David Neumark & William Wascher, 2006. "Minimum Wages and Employment: A Review of Evidence from the New Minimum Wage Research," NBER Working Papers 12663, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    21. Philipp vom Berge & Hanna Frings & Alfredo R. Paloyo, 2013. "High-Impact Minimum Wages and Heterogeneous Regions," Ruhr Economic Papers 0408, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    minimum wages; sub-minimum reform; employment; Greece;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • J30 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ces:ceswps:_7273. 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: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.html .

    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.