Will raising the minimum wage reduce employment? Analysis of the controversies related to the Nobel Prize in economics - Opinion

Nobel Prize-winning economist David Card showed that raising the minimum wage does not reduce hiring. Card, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, won the 2021 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences along with economists Joshua D. Angrist and Guida W. Imbens.

In a column piece, Asst Prof Bao Te from NTU’s SSS discussed Prof Card’s work. “His paper has attracted attention not only because of its contribution to natural experimental methods, but also because it challenges a common belief in people’s minds, that the labour market is regarded as a market that is indistinguishable from the commodity market.” He added: “When the wage price rises due to the minimum price, working hours and the number of jobs should fall. Prof Card attempts to explain the research results from several perspectives, including whether restaurants transfer the burden of rising wages to consumers through price increases.”

Read the article here.

 

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