Neumark, David, and Olena Nizalova. 2007. “Minimum Wage Effects in the Longer Run.” Journal of Human Resources 42(2): 435–452.
Exposure to minimum wages at young ages could lead to adverse longer-run effects via decreased labor market experience and tenure, and diminished education and training, while beneficial longer-run effects could arise if minimum wages increase skill acquisition. Evidence suggests that as individuals reach their late 20s, they earn less the longer they were exposed to a higher minimum wage at younger ages, and the adverse longer-run effects are stronger for blacks. If there are such longer-run effects of minimum wages, they are likely more significant than the contemporaneous effects on youths that are the focus of research and policy debate.
David Neumark is a professor of economics at UCI, Research Associate of the NBER, and Research Fellow at IZA. Olena Nizalova is an assistant professor of economics at the Kyiv Economics Institute and EERC-EROC. We are grateful to seminar participants at the University of Arizona, Columbia University, Michigan State University, Montana State University, NUI-Maynooth, the University of Oregon, and the Public Policy Institute of California, and to Joshua Angrist, Judith Hellerstein, Jeff Perloff, Ken Troske, and anonymous referees for helpful comments. The data used in the article can be obtained beginning October 2007 through September 2010 from Olena Nizalova, 10 Voloska Str., Suite 309, EERC MA Program in Economics, Kyiv, 04070, Ukraine nizalova@eerc.kiev.ua.