For the period 1984-1997, we find that state-level minimum wage hikes had no negative employment impact whereas federal hikes did. This dichotomy may account for the differences between the results of the 'new economics of the minimum wage' and time series studies.

The generalised Lorenz criterion is widely used for making welfare comparisons within and across countries on the basis of their income distributions. Experimental studies have challenged this way of proceeding by showing that the principle of transfers, which underlies the generalised Lorenz...