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Unsettled Findings

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Restoring the Middle Class through Wage Policy

Part of the book series: Binzagr Institute for Sustainable Prosperity ((BISP))

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Abstract

Despite the standard model that predicts that minimum wage increases will result in lower employment, the data on this is very incomplete. While there are many studies to support the standard model, at least when it comes to the teen labor market, there are also many studies that show these predictions to be less accurate when it comes to adults. Far from settled, the wealth of studies suggests that the data on the minimum wage is ambiguous at best. This has no doubt made it easier for the issue to be laden with politics. Because the incomplete data is coupled with microeconomic arguments against and macroeconomic arguments for, both opponents and proponents alike can cloak their interests in sound economic theory and present themselves as speaking in the name of the public interest. And yet, from a policy standpoint, the implication could not be more clear, which is that in the face of ambiguity there should be room for policy experimentation based on the needs of the community.

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  1. Metropolitan College of New York, New York, NY, USA

    Oren M. Levin-Waldman

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Levin-Waldman, O.M. (2018). Unsettled Findings. In: Restoring the Middle Class through Wage Policy. Binzagr Institute for Sustainable Prosperity. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74448-3_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74448-3_2

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-74447-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-74448-3

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