Lemos, S.; (2002) The effects of the minimum wage on wages and employment in Brazil: a menu of minimum wage variables. (Discussion Papers in Economics 02-02). Department of Economics, University College London: London, UK.

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Abstract

The international literature on minimum wage strongly lacks empirical evidence from developing countries. In Brazil, not only are increases in the minimum wage large and frequent - unlike the typically small increases focused upon in most of the existing literature - but also the minimum wage plays a central and complex role. In addition to its social role the minimum wage has been used as anti-inflationary policy, confirming its importance to the Brazilian Economy. This paper analyzes the effects of the minimum wage on both wages and employment using monthly household-level data (similar to the US CPS) over a reasonably long time period. A number of conceptual and identification questions is here discussed. Various strategies on how to best measure the effect of a constant (national) minimum wage are summarized in a “menu” of minimum wage variables. Also, an employment decomposition that separately estimates the hours worked and the number of jobs effects is used. Robust results indicate that an increase in the minimum wage strongly compresses the wages distribution with moderately small adverse effects on employment.

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