The Microeconometrics Seminar: Every Tuesday at 12:15 pm.
Time: 12:15 pm – 1:45 pm (NB: as a practice job talk, the format of the seminar will be one hour and a half)
Date: 25th of September 2018
Place: Room 3001.
Claire MONTIALOUX (CREST) – “Minimum Wages and Racial Inequality”, joint work with Ellora Derenoncourt (Harvard) – practice job talk.

Abstract: This paper shows that the extension of the minimum wage played a critical role in the reduction of the racial earnings gap in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The 1966 Fair Labor Standards Act introduced high federal minimum wages in sectors that were previously uncovered and where 30% of black workers were employed. We show that this reform increased wages for workers in newly covered industries and that the impact was twice as large for black workers as for whites. We find no effect of the reform on employment. The racial gap fell even after adjusting for all observables, suggesting that the drop partly reflects a decline in discrimination. The 1966 extension of the minimum wage can explain 20% of the reduction in the racial earnings gap in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Our findings shed new light on the impacts of labor standards on racial inequality.

Organizers:
Laurent Davezies (CREST), Benoit Schmutz (CREST), Arne Uhlendorff (CREST) & Lucas Girard (CREST)
Sponsors:
CREST
Lunch registration:
food provided, no registration