Regional effects of the minimum wage on teenage employment

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Abstract
Previous research on the minimum wage using national-level data concludes that the minimum wage has a small effect on the employment of teenagers. This paper provides new evidence that there is substantial regional variation in the effect of the minimum wage, and in some regions it has a decidedly larger impact on teenage employment than previously measured Estimates from a panel data set of the US states suggest that the minimum wage may cause almost a 7% reduction in teenage employment in some regions. This results is robust to different econometric specifications, and holds whether a relative or real specification of the estimating equation is used.