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David Neumark

University of California—Irvine, USA, and IZA, Germany

IZA World of Labor role

Author, Topic spokesperson

Current position

University of California—Irvine, Economic Self-Sufficiency Policy Research Institute—Founding Director; University of California, Irvine, Department of Economics—Distinguished Professor of Economics; IZA, Institute for the Study of Labor—Research Fellow (2004–present); National Bureau of Economic Research—Research Associate (1995–present); CESifo—Research Network Member

Research interest

Labor economics, public policy, econometrics

Website

http://bit.ly/Neumark_IZApage

Past positions

Visiting Lecturer, Renmin University, Hanqing Institute, Beijing, China (2012); Professor of Economics, Michigan State University, Department of Economics (1994–2004); Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, Department of Economics (1989–1994)

Qualifications

PhD Economics, Harvard University, 1987

Selected publications

  • “Revisiting the minimum wage-employment debate: Throwing out the baby with the bathwater?” Industrial and Labor Relations Review (Forthcoming) (with J. M. I. Salas and W. Wascher).

  • “Does a higher minimum wage enhance the effectiveness of the earned income tax credit?” Industrial and Labor Relations Review 64:4 (2011): 712–746 (with W. Wascher).

  • “Minimum wages and employment.” Foundations and Trends in Microeconomics 3:1–2 (2007): 1–182 (with W. Wascher).

  • “The effects of minimum wages on the distribution of family incomes: A non-parametric analysis.” Journal of Human Resources 40 (2005): 867–894 (with M. Schweitzer and W. Wascher).

  • “Minimum wages and employment: A case study of the fast-food industry in New Jersey and Pennsylvania: Comment.” American Economic Review 90:5 (2000): 1362–1396 (with W. Wascher). Reprinted in Donohue, J. (ed.). Economics of Labor and Employment Law. Volume 2. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2007.

article(s)

  • Employment effects of minimum wages Updated

    When minimum wages are introduced or raised, are there fewer jobs?

    David Neumark, December 2018
    The potential benefits of higher minimum wages come from the higher wages for affected workers, some of whom are in poor or low-income families. The potential downside is that a higher minimum wage may discourage firms from employing the low-wage, low-skill workers that minimum wages are intended to help. If minimum wages reduce employment of low-skill workers, then minimum wages are not a “free lunch” with which to help poor and low-income families, but instead pose a trade-off of benefits for some versus costs for others. Research findings are not unanimous, but especially for the US, evidence suggests that minimum wages reduce the jobs available to low-skill workers.
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