Pub Date : 2025-12-01DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102804
Yuxuan Zhang
This paper analyzes the impacts of peer gender composition on students’ educational outcomes using administrative records from a world top-ranking university in Singapore.1 Leveraging a unique tutorial balloting system at the university, I explore the near-random variation in gender composition across different tutorial groups within the same course. A modified version of the commonly used balance test method from the literature is applied to demonstrate random fluctuations in gender ratio across tutorial groups. At the baseline, I found positive and significant impact of having more female peers on both male and female students’ academic performance. Nevertheless, there are substantial heterogeneity across student-level characteristics. This paper, in particular, also established a direct comparison of gender peer effects between quantitative and qualitative fields and found asymmetric impacts on male and female students. Overall, the results imply that the impacts of peer gender composition vary considerably across contexts and policy construction must account for this variability instead of aiming for a one-size-fits-all solution.
{"title":"Gender peer effects in university courses: Evidence from tutorial groups","authors":"Yuxuan Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102804","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102804","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper analyzes the impacts of peer gender composition on students’ educational outcomes using administrative records from a world top-ranking university in Singapore.<span><span><sup>1</sup></span></span> Leveraging a unique tutorial balloting system at the university, I explore the near-random variation in gender composition across different tutorial groups within the same course. A modified version of the commonly used balance test method from the literature is applied to demonstrate random fluctuations in gender ratio across tutorial groups. At the baseline, I found positive and significant impact of having more female peers on both male and female students’ academic performance. Nevertheless, there are substantial heterogeneity across student-level characteristics. This paper, in particular, also established a direct comparison of gender peer effects between quantitative and qualitative fields and found asymmetric impacts on male and female students. Overall, the results imply that the impacts of peer gender composition vary considerably across contexts and policy construction must account for this variability instead of aiming for a one-size-fits-all solution.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":"97 ","pages":"Article 102804"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145690610","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-01DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102779
Marco Giovanni Nieddu , Roberto Nisticò , Lorenzo Pandolfi
This paper examines how publication-based tenure-track systems affect the careers of Ph.D. graduates in Economics. We leverage a 2010 reform in Italy that replaced open-ended assistant professor (AP) positions with fixed-term contracts and introduced publication minimum requirements for career advancement. Using survey and administrative data, along with a Difference-in-Differences Event-Study approach comparing Economics to less academically-oriented fields, we find that the reform significantly reduced the likelihood of Economics Ph.D. graduates entering academia in Italy, while increasing transitions to academic careers abroad or to public and private sector jobs. Talented graduates were disproportionately affected, revealing negative selection into Italian academia following the removal of permanent AP positions. Despite these trends, tenure-track hires tend to publish more in high-ranking journals, suggesting that the reform’s incentive effects may partly mitigate its negative selection effects.
{"title":"The effects of tenure-track systems on selection and productivity in Economics","authors":"Marco Giovanni Nieddu , Roberto Nisticò , Lorenzo Pandolfi","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102779","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102779","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper examines how publication-based tenure-track systems affect the careers of Ph.D. graduates in Economics. We leverage a 2010 reform in Italy that replaced open-ended assistant professor (AP) positions with fixed-term contracts and introduced publication minimum requirements for career advancement. Using survey and administrative data, along with a Difference-in-Differences Event-Study approach comparing Economics to less academically-oriented fields, we find that the reform significantly reduced the likelihood of Economics Ph.D. graduates entering academia in Italy, while increasing transitions to academic careers abroad or to public and private sector jobs. Talented graduates were disproportionately affected, revealing negative selection into Italian academia following the removal of permanent AP positions. Despite these trends, tenure-track hires tend to publish more in high-ranking journals, suggesting that the reform’s incentive effects may partly mitigate its negative selection effects.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":"97 ","pages":"Article 102779"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145690580","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-01DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102782
Chen Chen
This paper examines the impact of China’s family planning policies in the 1970s (“Later, Longer, Fewer” campaign) on the long-term career advancement of men and women. Despite the high female labor force participation rates, I use a cohort Triple-Difference approach and find a significant gender gap in achieving managerial positions among those affected by the policies, with average exposure reducing these disparities by 20%. The narrowing of the gender gap is more pronounced for women in non-white-collar or non-female-dominated industries, where fewer institutional advantages leave women more vulnerable to fertility-related career disruptions. Women more exposed to family planning policies tend to seek college education, increase labor input, and rely less on offspring for old-age support, with no analogous findings in men, suggesting that human capital accumulation is a key mechanism for the narrowing of the gender gap in career outcomes. This paper underscores the capacity of policy interventions to influence labor market dynamics and foster gender equality.
{"title":"Long-run impacts of fertility restriction policy on China’s gender gap in career advancement","authors":"Chen Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102782","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102782","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper examines the impact of China’s family planning policies in the 1970s (“Later, Longer, Fewer” campaign) on the long-term career advancement of men and women. Despite the high female labor force participation rates, I use a cohort Triple-Difference approach and find a significant gender gap in achieving managerial positions among those affected by the policies, with average exposure reducing these disparities by 20%. The narrowing of the gender gap is more pronounced for women in non-white-collar or non-female-dominated industries, where fewer institutional advantages leave women more vulnerable to fertility-related career disruptions. Women more exposed to family planning policies tend to seek college education, increase labor input, and rely less on offspring for old-age support, with no analogous findings in men, suggesting that human capital accumulation is a key mechanism for the narrowing of the gender gap in career outcomes. This paper underscores the capacity of policy interventions to influence labor market dynamics and foster gender equality.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":"97 ","pages":"Article 102782"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145690596","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-29DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102829
Zsófia L. Bárány , Kerstin Holzheu
We study how worker specialization — the distance between a worker’s skill set and those prevalent in the labor market — shapes employment outcomes. Using US and French data, we first document that specialized jobs are characterized by asymmetric skill profiles and a scarcity of nearby employment opportunities. We incorporate these features into a random search model with multidimensional skills, mismatch penalties and skill complementarity. We show that specialization lowers job-finding rates due to a lack of suitable jobs, but raises re-employment wages via improved productivity. Empirical evidence from displaced workers in both countries confirms these predictions. Our findings reconcile competing views in the literature by showing that specialization entails trade-offs and is neither uniformly beneficial nor harmful.
{"title":"The two faces of worker specialization","authors":"Zsófia L. Bárány , Kerstin Holzheu","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102829","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102829","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We study how worker specialization — the distance between a worker’s skill set and those prevalent in the labor market — shapes employment outcomes. Using US and French data, we first document that specialized jobs are characterized by asymmetric skill profiles and a scarcity of nearby employment opportunities. We incorporate these features into a random search model with multidimensional skills, mismatch penalties and skill complementarity. We show that specialization lowers job-finding rates due to a lack of suitable jobs, but raises re-employment wages via improved productivity. Empirical evidence from displaced workers in both countries confirms these predictions. Our findings reconcile competing views in the literature by showing that specialization entails trade-offs and is neither uniformly beneficial nor harmful.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":"98 ","pages":"Article 102829"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-11-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145748354","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-24DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102832
Bharadwaj Kannan , Roberto Pinheiro , Harry J. Turtle
Do firms respond to labour mobility shocks? We construct an overlapping generations model where policies restricting labour mobility present firms with an important trade-off. Firms leverage their monopsony power to reduce late-career wages while early-career workers demand a wage premium to join the restricted sector. In response to higher labour turnover costs, firms alter their optimal capital–labour ratio. We confirm these predictions in the data by exploiting the statewide adoption by state supreme courts of the inevitable disclosure doctrine (IDD) as a valid legal doctrine intended to protect trade secrets by restricting labour mobility. Post-IDD, early-career workers receive higher starting wages, late-career workers experience slower wage growth, firms raise investment by 3.5%, and their capital–labour ratio by 5.5%. Our results suggest that firms respond meaningfully to labour mobility shocks by replacing labour with capital.
{"title":"Replacing labour with capital: Evidence from aggregate mobility shocks","authors":"Bharadwaj Kannan , Roberto Pinheiro , Harry J. Turtle","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102832","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102832","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Do firms respond to labour mobility shocks? We construct an overlapping generations model where policies restricting labour mobility present firms with an important trade-off. Firms leverage their monopsony power to reduce late-career wages while early-career workers demand a wage premium to join the restricted sector. In response to higher labour turnover costs, firms alter their optimal capital–labour ratio. We confirm these predictions in the data by exploiting the statewide adoption by state supreme courts of the inevitable disclosure doctrine (IDD) as a valid legal doctrine intended to protect trade secrets by restricting labour mobility. Post-IDD, early-career workers receive higher starting wages, late-career workers experience slower wage growth, firms raise investment by 3.5%, and their capital–labour ratio by 5.5%. Our results suggest that firms respond meaningfully to labour mobility shocks by replacing labour with capital.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":"98 ","pages":"Article 102832"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145748352","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Financial incentives can shape firms’ compliance with employment quotas, yet their effectiveness remains contested. This study examines whether Japan’s levy-grant system for disability employment promotes hiring in small and medium-sized enterprises. Using administrative data on statutory quota compliance, we exploit a 2015 reform—lowering the coverage threshold from firms with more than 200 to more than 100 employees—as a natural experiment. Difference-in-differences estimates, supplemented by regression discontinuity analysis, reveal heterogeneous effects by pre-reform compliance status. Firms already meeting the quota expanded disability employment in anticipation of the reform, thereby avoiding future levies, while non-compliant firms increased hiring only after coverage took effect. Near the 100-employee threshold, the policy raised the number of employees with disabilities by 0.2–0.3 persons, the employment rate by 0.2–0.3 percentage points, and the probability of employing at least one person with a disability by 12–15 percentage points. Effects weakened after about seven years, and no evidence was found that grants induced further hiring among compliant firms. Sectoral estimates show larger effects in manufacturing, consistent with accumulated know-how that lowers adaptation costs. These results suggest that levy penalties, rather than grants, drive early employment gains, particularly among firms previously out of compliance.
{"title":"Do levy penalties boost disability hiring in SMEs? Evidence from a Japanese quota reform","authors":"Kodai Matsumoto , Yota Okumura , Atsushi Morimoto , Kazufumi Yugami","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102831","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102831","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Financial incentives can shape firms’ compliance with employment quotas, yet their effectiveness remains contested. This study examines whether Japan’s levy-grant system for disability employment promotes hiring in small and medium-sized enterprises. Using administrative data on statutory quota compliance, we exploit a 2015 reform—lowering the coverage threshold from firms with more than 200 to more than 100 employees—as a natural experiment. Difference-in-differences estimates, supplemented by regression discontinuity analysis, reveal heterogeneous effects by pre-reform compliance status. Firms already meeting the quota expanded disability employment in anticipation of the reform, thereby avoiding future levies, while non-compliant firms increased hiring only after coverage took effect. Near the 100-employee threshold, the policy raised the number of employees with disabilities by 0.2–0.3 persons, the employment rate by 0.2–0.3 percentage points, and the probability of employing at least one person with a disability by 12–15 percentage points. Effects weakened after about seven years, and no evidence was found that grants induced further hiring among compliant firms. Sectoral estimates show larger effects in manufacturing, consistent with accumulated know-how that lowers adaptation costs. These results suggest that levy penalties, rather than grants, drive early employment gains, particularly among firms previously out of compliance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":"99 ","pages":"Article 102831"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146078797","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-21DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102827
Vera Chiodi , Bruno Crépon , Guillermo Cruces
Housing conditions, residential location, and employment are key determinants of individual welfare, particularly for vulnerable populations facing credit constraints and information frictions. We examine how housing assistance affects employment outcomes using a randomized controlled trial in France that provided vulnerable youth (aged 18–25) with both job search assistance and housing support, including rent guarantees. The program successfully improved housing conditions: beneficiaries experienced better accommodation stability, reduced precarious situations, and increased satisfaction with their housing. However, despite substantial social worker support, the program did not improve employment rates, contract types, or earnings. Strikingly, beneficiaries moved to neighborhoods with objectively worse employment opportunities and lower socioeconomic indicators, yet reported higher satisfaction with their residential areas. This apparent paradox reveals that beneficiaries appear to prioritize housing affordability and conditions over employment access. Our results suggest that successful interventions may need to explicitly balance housing improvements with maintaining access to employment opportunities.
{"title":"Location, housing and employment opportunities","authors":"Vera Chiodi , Bruno Crépon , Guillermo Cruces","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102827","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102827","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Housing conditions, residential location, and employment are key determinants of individual welfare, particularly for vulnerable populations facing credit constraints and information frictions. We examine how housing assistance affects employment outcomes using a randomized controlled trial in France that provided vulnerable youth (aged 18–25) with both job search assistance and housing support, including rent guarantees. The program successfully improved housing conditions: beneficiaries experienced better accommodation stability, reduced precarious situations, and increased satisfaction with their housing. However, despite substantial social worker support, the program did not improve employment rates, contract types, or earnings. Strikingly, beneficiaries moved to neighborhoods with objectively worse employment opportunities and lower socioeconomic indicators, yet reported higher satisfaction with their residential areas. This apparent paradox reveals that beneficiaries appear to prioritize housing affordability and conditions over employment access. Our results suggest that successful interventions may need to explicitly balance housing improvements with maintaining access to employment opportunities.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":"99 ","pages":"Article 102827"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145980619","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Using online job board data, we study the key factors driving application decisions for unemployed and employed job seekers. We identify relevant job consideration sets using a network approach based on co-application patterns. We document how demographics and ad timing affect applications, finding evidence consistent with stock–flow matching for the unemployed. Furthermore, we show seekers respond strongly to misalignment in education, experience, wages, and location, generally applying where observable alignment is good, although employed seekers seem more ambitious, showing greater tolerance for underqualification in education and a tendency to apply for jobs above their declared wage expectations. Methodologically, we propose this network approach for defining consideration sets, helping address potential biases in standard market definitions. This evidence contributes to understanding search behavior and differences between seeker types.
{"title":"Deconstructing job search behavior","authors":"Stefano Banfi , Sekyu Choi , Benjamín Villena-Roldán","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102822","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102822","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Using online job board data, we study the key factors driving application decisions for unemployed and employed job seekers. We identify relevant job consideration sets using a network approach based on co-application patterns. We document how demographics and ad timing affect applications, finding evidence consistent with stock–flow matching for the unemployed. Furthermore, we show seekers respond strongly to misalignment in education, experience, wages, and location, generally applying where observable alignment is good, although employed seekers seem more ambitious, showing greater tolerance for underqualification in education and a tendency to apply for jobs above their declared wage expectations. Methodologically, we propose this network approach for defining consideration sets, helping address potential biases in standard market definitions. This evidence contributes to understanding search behavior and differences between seeker types.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":"97 ","pages":"Article 102822"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145578763","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-13DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102828
Jorge M. Agüero , Francisco B. Galarza Arellano , Gustavo Yamada
We study the signaling effect of a college scholarship in a labor market where disadvantaged groups face discrimination. Using a correspondence (audit) study, we find that including information about being a scholarship recipient on a resume increases the likelihood of receiving a job interview callback by 20 %. However, the effect is much smaller for resume profiles featuring characteristics that are less common among low-income individuals. This pattern is consistent with the scholarship also conveying a negative socioeconomic signal to employers, helping explain why actual beneficiaries rarely include it on their resumes.
{"title":"College scholarships, poverty, signaling and employment opportunities: Evidence from a field experiment","authors":"Jorge M. Agüero , Francisco B. Galarza Arellano , Gustavo Yamada","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102828","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102828","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We study the signaling effect of a college scholarship in a labor market where disadvantaged groups face discrimination. Using a correspondence (audit) study, we find that including information about being a scholarship recipient on a resume increases the likelihood of receiving a job interview callback by 20 %. However, the effect is much smaller for resume profiles featuring characteristics that are less common among low-income individuals. This pattern is consistent with the scholarship also conveying a negative socioeconomic signal to employers, helping explain why actual beneficiaries rarely include it on their resumes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":"99 ","pages":"Article 102828"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-11-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145941378","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-13DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102826
Alexander Hijzen , Mateo Montenegro , Ana Sofia Pessoa
This paper provides an assessment of the 2019 minimum-wage hike in Spain, which increased the minimum wage by 22 % and directly concerned 7 % of dependent employees. We make use of two complementary approaches, one that follows incumbent workers over time and hence does not take account of any possible effects on new hires, and one that tracks employment in wage bins over time and takes account of both separations and new hires. The results are as follows. First, the minimum wage hike significantly increased the wages of directly affected workers, with small positive wage spillovers on workers with initial wages just about the new minimum wage. Second, the increase in wages comes at the expense of a reduction in low-wage employment. While employment increases just above the minimum wage, it is not sufficient to offset the decline in employment below it. Third, the reduction in employment is mainly driven by a reduction in hires of workers on open-ended contracts and to a smaller extent job losses among workers on fixed-term contracts. This illustrates that limiting the study of minimum wage hikes to stayers can dampen the estimated impact on employment.
{"title":"Minimum wages in a dual labor market: Evidence from the 2019 minimum-wage hike in Spain","authors":"Alexander Hijzen , Mateo Montenegro , Ana Sofia Pessoa","doi":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102826","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102826","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper provides an assessment of the 2019 minimum-wage hike in Spain, which increased the minimum wage by 22 % and directly concerned 7 % of dependent employees. We make use of two complementary approaches, one that follows incumbent workers over time and hence does not take account of any possible effects on new hires, and one that tracks employment in wage bins over time and takes account of both separations and new hires. The results are as follows. First, the minimum wage hike significantly increased the wages of directly affected workers, with small positive wage spillovers on workers with initial wages just about the new minimum wage. Second, the increase in wages comes at the expense of a reduction in low-wage employment. While employment increases just above the minimum wage, it is not sufficient to offset the decline in employment below it. Third, the reduction in employment is mainly driven by a reduction in hires of workers on open-ended contracts and to a smaller extent job losses among workers on fixed-term contracts. This illustrates that limiting the study of minimum wage hikes to stayers can dampen the estimated impact on employment.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48153,"journal":{"name":"Labour Economics","volume":"98 ","pages":"Article 102826"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-11-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145625306","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}