Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/20398 
Year of Publication: 
2004
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 1160
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper contributes to our understanding of the impact of institutions on incomes of workers in developing countries by rigorously addressing the question as to whether changes in minimum wages can change the inequality of the distribution of earnings. More specifically, we analyze whether changes in Costa Rica?s complex institution of multiple minimum wages in the 1980s and 1990s acted as a countervailing force to the unequalizing effect of globalization. Using annual data on workers from the 1987-1997 household surveys, it is shown that changes in the legal minimum wages did indeed have an effect on wage inequality and that these changes would not have been captured using the simple interpretation of minimum wages found in much of the literature.
Subjects: 
minimum wages
employment
wages
Costa Rica
JEL: 
J38
J31
J23
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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