Date of Award

Summer 8-18-2023

Level of Access Assigned by Author

Open-Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Economics

Advisor

Andrew Crawley

Second Committee Member

Todd Gabe

Third Committee Member

Kathleen Bell

Abstract

The first section of this research investigates the impacts of the minimum wage on regional labor markets in the United States. Using ten years of county-level data, we examine the relationship between the minimum wage and several key components of the labor market. Following past research, employment variables are used to measure labor supply, but—as an extension to the literature—job postings data are included to measure labor demand. Consistent with previous studies, we find a positive relationship between labor force participation and a county’s minimum wage. We do not find a statistically significant relationship between job postings and the minimum wage when using our full sample.

Building on the work presented in Chapter 2, the third chapter of this thesis uses a labor market flow framework to explore the effects of minimum wage on job postings and the labor force when controlling for labor market supply and demand. Using an instrumental variable approach to address endogeneity, we do not find a significant relationship between minimum wage levels and the number of job postings. We do, however, observe a significant and positive relationship between the minimum wage level and the size of the labor force.

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