Nuremberg Research Seminar in Economics on 13 July 2022 – Room LG 0.423
You are invited to join the weekly Nuremberg Research Seminar in Economics on 13 July 2022, from 13.15 to 14.45 pm. The seminar will be held in room LG 0.423. Gabriel Ahlfeldt (LSE) will be talking about „Optimal minimum wages“.
More information can be found here:
We develop a quantitative spatial model with heterogeneous firms and a monopsonistic labour market to derive minimum wages that maximize employment or welfare. Quantifying the model for German micro regions, we find that the German minimum wage, set at 48% of the national mean wage, has increased aggregate worker welfare by about 2.1% at the cost or reducing employment by about 0.3%. The welfare-maximizing federal minimum wage, at 60% of the national mean wage, would increase aggregate worker welfare by 4%, but reduce employment by 5.6%. An employment-maximizing regional wage, set at 50% of the regional mean wage, would achieve a similar aggregate welfare effect and increase employment by 1.1%.