Dynamic Effects of Minimum Wage on Growth and Innovation in a Schumpeterian Economy

Chu, Angus C. and Kou, Zonglai and Wang, Xilin (2019): Dynamic Effects of Minimum Wage on Growth and Innovation in a Schumpeterian Economy. Forthcoming in: Economics Letters

Abstract

We explore the dynamic effects of minimum wage in a Schumpeterian model with endogenous market structure and obtain the following results. First, raising the minimum wage decreases the employment of low-skill workers and increases the unemployment rate. Second, it decreases the level of output. Third, it decreases the transitional growth rate of output but does not affect the steady-state growth rate. Our quantitative analysis shows that the magnitude of the negative effects of minimum wage is sharply increasing in low-skill labor intensity in production and that employed low-skill workers gain initially but might suffer from slower growth in future wages.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: minimum wage; unemployment; innovation; endogenous market structure
• Subjects: E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E2 - Consumption, Saving, Production, Investment, Labor Markets, and Informal Economy > E24 - Employment ; Unemployment ; Wages ; Intergenerational Income Distribution ; Aggregate Human Capital ; Aggregate Labor Productivity; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O3 - Innovation ; Research and Development ; Technological Change ; Intellectual Property Rights; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O4 - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity

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