谁为洛杉矶的最低工资买单？

中文摘要

我们研究了洛杉矶县内两项在五年多时间里始终存在差异的最低工资标准，以分析最低工资上调所带来的负担如何由消费者承担。由于洛杉矶的市界易于跨越，这一案例类似于一项自然实验。利用一套新的、覆盖五年的价格调查数据集，我们表明，较高最低工资所带来的负担全部由高收入社区的消费者承担，而低工资社区的消费者未承担任何相关负担。此外，面临受较低最低工资约束的竞争者会减弱上述效应，而面临工资较高的竞争者的工资较低的餐馆则获得了垄断租金。

Abstract

Abstract We analyze how the incidence of minimum wage increases falls on customers by studying two minimum wages in Los Angeles County that remained unequal for over five years. Because Los Angeles’ municipal borders are porous, the case resembles a natural experiment. Using a novel 5-year price survey dataset, we show that the full incidence of the higher minimum wage fell on customers in high-income neighborhoods, and that none of the incidence fell on customers in low-wage neighborhoods. Additionally, exposure to competitors subject to a lower minimum wage mitigated these effects, and lower-wage restaurants exposed to higher-wage competitors received monopoly rents.