Minimum Wages and Healthy Diet

Pohl, R. Vincent and Clark, Kathryn L. and Thomas, Ryan C. (2017): Minimum Wages and Healthy Diet.

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.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: minimum wages, nutrition, healthy diet, fruit and vegetable consumption, triple-differences
• Subjects: I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I1 - Health > I12 - Health Behavior; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J3 - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs > J38 - Public Policy

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