The regional effects of a national minimum wage

Abstract

"We estimate the spatially differential effects of a nationally uniform minimum wage that was introduced in Germany in 2015. To this end, we use a micro data set covering the universe of employed and unemployed individuals in Germany from 2011 to 2016 and a difference-indifferences based identification strategy that controls for heterogeneity in pre-treatment outcome trends. We find that the policy led to spatial wage convergence, in particular in the left tail of the distribution, without reducing relative employment in low-wage regions within the first two years." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Ahlfeldt, G., Roth, D. & Seidel, T. (2018): The regional effects of a national minimum wage. (CESifo working paper 6924), München, 16 p.