Abstract
This paper attempts to test the degree of responsiveness of Canadian provincial governments to different political groups in establishing their relative minimum wage policies over the 1975–1982 period. It discusses alternative explanations of minimum wage policies and focuses on the political market approach, where women, youth, small business and unions play a role. An econometric model is specified and estimated on pooled annual time series and cross-section data for nine provinces in Canada. The results tend to support most of the hypotheses.
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We would like to thank Pierre Mercile for his research assistance and professors Emile Allie, François Vaillancourt and Robert Young for their helpful comments. We also benefited from the comments of Walter Hettich and Thomas E. Merz who were discussants of an earlier version of the paper at the 1988 Annual Meeting of the Public Choice Society. The study was funded by the SSHRC.
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Blais, A., Cousineau, JM. & McRoberts, K. The determinants of minimum wage rates. Public Choice 62, 15–24 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00168011
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00168011