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Minimum Wages and Healthy Diet

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  • Pohl, R. Vincent
  • Clark, Kathryn L.
  • Thomas, Ryan C.

Abstract

A healthy diet is often unaffordable for low-income individuals, so income-lifting policies may play an important role in not only alleviating poverty but also in improving nutrition. We investigate if higher minimum wages can contribute to an improved diet by increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables. Exploiting recent minimum wage increases in the U.S. and using individual-level data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System we identify the causal effect of minimum wage changes on fruit and vegetable intake among low-wage individuals in a triple-differences framework. Our results indicate that higher minimum wages contribute positively but moderately to improved nutrition.

Suggested Citation

  • Pohl, R. Vincent & Clark, Kathryn L. & Thomas, Ryan C., 2017. "Minimum Wages and Healthy Diet," MPRA Paper 87239, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:87239
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Lucas Hafner & Benjamin Lochner, 2022. "Do minimum wages improve self-rated health? Evidence from a natural experiment," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 62(6), pages 2989-3014, June.
    2. Pac, Jessica & Bartel, Ann & Ruhm, Christopher & Waldfogel, Jane, 2023. "Paid family leave and parental investments in infant health: Evidence from California," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    3. Susan L. Prescott & Alan C. Logan, 2019. "Narrative Medicine Meets Planetary Health: Mindsets Matter in the Anthropocene," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-26, February.
    4. Hafner, Lucas, 2019. "Do minimum wages improve self-rated health? Evidence from a natural experiment," FAU Discussion Papers in Economics 02/2019, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Institute for Economics.
    5. Susan L. Prescott & Alan C. Logan, 2018. "Larger Than Life: Injecting Hope into the Planetary Health Paradigm," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-27, March.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    minimum wages; nutrition; healthy diet; fruit and vegetable consumption; triple-differences;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • J38 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Public Policy

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