The Role of the Minimum Wage in the Welfare State: An Appraisal

40 Pages Posted: 10 Jul 2000

See all articles by Juan Jose Dolado

Juan Jose Dolado

Charles III University of Madrid - Department of Economics; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA); CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

Florentino Felgueroso

Universidad de Oviedo - Facultad de Economicas; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

Juan F. Jimeno

Banco de España - Research Department; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Date Written: May 2000

Abstract

In order to offer a balanced assessment of the role of minimum wages in the Welfare State, seven basic questions need to be answered: (i) Why is the minimum wage a useful redistributive tool? (ii) How binding are minimum wage floors in different countries? (iii) To what extent do minimum wages have the adverse consequences that standard analyses predict? (iv) Are there strong theoretical grounds underlying the revisionist results? (v) Who supports minimum wages? (vi) Under which conditions is the minimum wage a better tool than other policy instruments to achieve income redistribution? And, finally, (vii) What is the overall cross-country time-series evidence regarding the employment effect of the minima? The aim of this paper is to provide an appraisal on the available evidence for each of the above-mentioned issues.

JEL Classification: J31

Suggested Citation

Dolado, Juan Jose and Felgueroso Fernández, Florentino José and Jimeno, Juan F., The Role of the Minimum Wage in the Welfare State: An Appraisal (May 2000). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=233903 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.233903

Juan Jose Dolado (Contact Author)

Charles III University of Madrid - Department of Economics ( email )

Calle Madrid 126
Getafe, 28903
Spain
+34 91 624 9300 (Phone)
+34 91 624 9313 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.eco.uc3m.es/english/staff/

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

London
United Kingdom

Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

Poschinger Str. 5
Munich, DE-81679
Germany

Florentino José Felgueroso Fernández

Universidad de Oviedo - Facultad de Economicas ( email )

Campus del Cristo, s/n
Oviedo, Asturias 33071
Spain
+34 98 510 3765 (Phone)
+34 98 523 4871 (Fax)

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

London
United Kingdom

Juan F. Jimeno

Banco de España - Research Department ( email )

Alcala 48
28014 Madrid
Spain

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

London
United Kingdom

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

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