Tuesday, 4 December 2012

Heterogeneous Firm Responses to Rising Teenage Wages

an article by Dean R. Hyslop, David C. MarĂ©, Steven Stillman and Jason Timmins (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand) published in LABOUR Volume 26 Issue 4 (December 2012)

Abstract

Substantial youth minimum wage changes in New Zealand between 2000 and 2007 raised teenage average wages by 5-10 per cent relative to those for adults.

We use Statistics New Zealand’s Linked Employer-Employee Database (LEED) to examine whether firms’ teenage labour demand responses to these changes are greater for firms with higher teenage-employment share.

We find evidence that high teen-employers reduced their teen employment relative to other firms and had lower survival rates over the period.

However, firms that entered the main teen-employment industries had higher teen-employment shares than continuing firms. The results are consistent with endogenous technology adoption in response to non-marginal changes in relative wages.

JEL classifications: J21, J23, J31, J38


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