Does the minimum wage affect wage inequality?

Autores
Lombardo, Carlo Ignazio; Ramírez-Leira, Lucía; Gasparini, Leonardo Carlos
Año de publicación
2022
Idioma
inglés
Tipo de recurso
documento de trabajo
Estado
versión enviada
Descripción
Minimum wage (MW) policies are widespread in the developing world and yet their effects are still unclear. In this paper we explore the effect of national MW policies in Latin America’s six largest economies by exploiting the heterogeneity in the bite of the national minimum wage across local labor markets and over time. We find evidence that the MW has a compression effect on the wage distribution of formal workers. The effect was particularly large during the 2000s, a decade of sustained growth and strong labor markets. In contrast, the effect seems to vanish in the 2010s, a decade of much weaker labor markets. We also find suggestive evidence of a lighthouse effect: the MW seems to have an equalizing effect also on the wage distribution of informal workers.
Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales
Materia
Ciencias Económicas
Minimum Wage
Wages
Labor Markets
Inequality
Informality
Latin America
Nivel de accesibilidad
acceso abierto
Condiciones de uso
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Repositorio
SEDICI (UNLP)
Institución
Universidad Nacional de La Plata
OAI Identificador
oai:sedici.unlp.edu.ar:10915/141513

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network_name_str SEDICI (UNLP)
spelling Does the minimum wage affect wage inequality?Lombardo, Carlo IgnazioRamírez-Leira, LucíaGasparini, Leonardo CarlosCiencias EconómicasMinimum WageWagesLabor MarketsInequalityInformalityLatin AmericaMinimum wage (MW) policies are widespread in the developing world and yet their effects are still unclear. In this paper we explore the effect of national MW policies in Latin America’s six largest economies by exploiting the heterogeneity in the bite of the national minimum wage across local labor markets and over time. We find evidence that the MW has a compression effect on the wage distribution of formal workers. The effect was particularly large during the 2000s, a decade of sustained growth and strong labor markets. In contrast, the effect seems to vanish in the 2010s, a decade of much weaker labor markets. We also find suggestive evidence of a lighthouse effect: the MW seems to have an equalizing effect also on the wage distribution of informal workers.Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales2022-09info:eu-repo/semantics/workingPaperinfo:eu-repo/semantics/submittedVersionDocumento de trabajohttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_8042info:ar-repo/semantics/documentoDeTrabajoapplication/pdfhttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/141513enginfo:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/url/https://www.cedlas.econo.unlp.edu.ar/wp/wp-content/uploads/doc_cedlas302.pdf?dl=0info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/1853-0168info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccesshttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)reponame:SEDICI (UNLP)instname:Universidad Nacional de La Platainstacron:UNLP2025-09-29T11:35:54Zoai:sedici.unlp.edu.ar:10915/141513Institucionalhttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/Universidad públicaNo correspondehttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/oai/snrdalira@sedici.unlp.edu.arArgentinaNo correspondeNo correspondeNo correspondeopendoar:13292025-09-29 11:35:54.798SEDICI (UNLP) - Universidad Nacional de La Platafalse
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Does the minimum wage affect wage inequality?
title Does the minimum wage affect wage inequality?
spellingShingle Does the minimum wage affect wage inequality?
Lombardo, Carlo Ignazio
Ciencias Económicas
Minimum Wage
Wages
Labor Markets
Inequality
Informality
Latin America
title_short Does the minimum wage affect wage inequality?
title_full Does the minimum wage affect wage inequality?
title_fullStr Does the minimum wage affect wage inequality?
title_full_unstemmed Does the minimum wage affect wage inequality?
title_sort Does the minimum wage affect wage inequality?
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Lombardo, Carlo Ignazio
Ramírez-Leira, Lucía
Gasparini, Leonardo Carlos
author Lombardo, Carlo Ignazio
author_facet Lombardo, Carlo Ignazio
Ramírez-Leira, Lucía
Gasparini, Leonardo Carlos
author_role author
author2 Ramírez-Leira, Lucía
Gasparini, Leonardo Carlos
author2_role author
author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Ciencias Económicas
Minimum Wage
Wages
Labor Markets
Inequality
Informality
Latin America
topic Ciencias Económicas
Minimum Wage
Wages
Labor Markets
Inequality
Informality
Latin America
dc.description.none.fl_txt_mv Minimum wage (MW) policies are widespread in the developing world and yet their effects are still unclear. In this paper we explore the effect of national MW policies in Latin America’s six largest economies by exploiting the heterogeneity in the bite of the national minimum wage across local labor markets and over time. We find evidence that the MW has a compression effect on the wage distribution of formal workers. The effect was particularly large during the 2000s, a decade of sustained growth and strong labor markets. In contrast, the effect seems to vanish in the 2010s, a decade of much weaker labor markets. We also find suggestive evidence of a lighthouse effect: the MW seems to have an equalizing effect also on the wage distribution of informal workers.
Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales
description Minimum wage (MW) policies are widespread in the developing world and yet their effects are still unclear. In this paper we explore the effect of national MW policies in Latin America’s six largest economies by exploiting the heterogeneity in the bite of the national minimum wage across local labor markets and over time. We find evidence that the MW has a compression effect on the wage distribution of formal workers. The effect was particularly large during the 2000s, a decade of sustained growth and strong labor markets. In contrast, the effect seems to vanish in the 2010s, a decade of much weaker labor markets. We also find suggestive evidence of a lighthouse effect: the MW seems to have an equalizing effect also on the wage distribution of informal workers.
publishDate 2022
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2022-09
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/workingPaper
info:eu-repo/semantics/submittedVersion
Documento de trabajo
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_8042
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dc.language.none.fl_str_mv eng
language eng
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info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/1853-0168
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
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