The effect of minimum wages on employment is highly disputed. The main questions in the literature are on how to deal with spatial heterogeneity and dynamics. We use statistical (multi-factor error models) and economic (political ideology as control variable) methods to address the first....

Dube, Lester and Reich (2010, DLR), using state minimum wage discontinuities across bordering counties and Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages data, did not detect negative minimum wage effects on restaurant employment. Jha, Neumark and Rodriguez-Lopez (2024, JNR) claim that looking within...

Local case studies of minimum wages typically find no significant employment effects, while studies using national data find some negative effects for teenagers. We argue that heterogeneity in spatial employment trends generates biased estimates in national analyses and causes overstatement of...