Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/129522 
Year of Publication: 
2012
Series/Report no.: 
Working Paper Series No. 12-3
Publisher: 
University of Mannheim, Department of Economics, Mannheim
Abstract: 
To address the impact of regulation on ethical concerns of consumers, we study the example of minimum wages. In our experimental market, consumers have monopsony power, firms set prices and wages, and workers are passive recipients of a wage payment. We find that the consumers exhibit considerable fairness towards the workers by buying from the firm with the higher price and the higher wage. We also find that consumers have a tendency to split their demand equally between firms, which is a simple strategy to provide both workers with a minimal payoff. Introducing a minimum wage in a mature market raises average wages despite its significant crowding-out effects on consumers' fairness concerns. Abolishing a minimum wage crowds in consumers' fairness concerns, but crowding in is not sufficient to avoid overall negative effects on the workers' wages.
Subjects: 
Fairness
crowding out
consumer behavior
minimum wage
experimental economics
JEL: 
C91
J88
K31
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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