Estimating the Minimum Wage’s Spillover Effect on Below Median Local Housing Rents

IF 0.8 Q4 ECONOMICS

ATLANTIC ECONOMIC JOURNAL Pub Date : 2025-06-12 DOI:10.1007/s11293-025-09824-4

Krieg Tidemann

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

This paper offers empirical evidence on minimum wage spillovers into rental housing markets. Minimum wage spillovers may arise from two channels shifting housing demand: migration or minimum wage impacts on low-wage worker real income. Reduced-form estimation and a pooled event study exploit state-by-year variation from 1985—2023 in effective minimum wages to estimate the minimum wage’s impact on below median housing rents and low-wage worker population shares. The empirical strategies rely on rent data from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Fair Market Rents series and American Community Survey population shares data from the United States Census Bureau. The minimum wage has an inconclusive effect on low-wage worker population shares while reducing rents. A $1 minimum wage increase reduces below-median monthly rents by 0.7 – 2 percentage points. In contrast to the limited existing evidence for the minimum wage raising local housing prices, this paper’s evidence of the minimum wage decreasing below-median local housing rents contributes to the literature by suggesting a heterogeneous housing price response to increasing the minimum wage. It also offers new evidence affirming that higher minimum wages improve housing affordability.

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估计最低工资对中位数以下地方住房租金的溢出效应

本文提供了最低工资对租赁住房市场溢出效应的实证证据。最低工资溢出效应可能来自两个渠道：移民或最低工资对低收入工人实际收入的影响。简化形式估计和汇总事件研究利用1985-2023年间各州有效最低工资的逐年变化来估计最低工资对低于中位数的住房租金和低收入工人人口比例的影响。实证策略依赖于美国住房和城市发展部公平市场租金系列的租金数据和美国人口普查局的美国社区调查人口份额数据。最低工资在降低租金的同时，对低收入工人的人口比例有不确定的影响。最低工资每增加1美元，月租金就会降低0.7 - 2个百分点。与现有有限的最低工资提高当地房价的证据相比，本文的最低工资降低到当地住房租金低于中位数的证据表明，房价对提高最低工资的反应是异质的，这对文献有贡献。它还提供了新的证据，证明提高最低工资可以提高住房负担能力。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

ATLANTIC ECONOMIC JOURNAL ECONOMICS-

CiteScore

1.30

自引率

16.70%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Atlantic Economic Journal (AEJ) has an international reputation for excellent articles in all interest areas, without regard to fields or methodological preferences. Founded in 1973 by the International Atlantic Economic Society, a need was identified for increased communication among scholars from different countries. For over 30 years, the AEJ has continuously sought articles that traced some of the most critical economic changes and developments to occur on the global level. The journal''s goal is to facilitate and synthesize economic research across nations to encourage cross-fertilization of ideas and scholarly research. Contributors include some of the world''s most respected economists and financial specialists, including Nobel laureates and leading government officials. AEJ welcomes both theoretical and empirical articles, as well as public policy papers. All manuscripts are submitted to a double-blind peer review process. In addition to formal publication of full-length articles, the AEJ provides an opportunity for less formal communication through its Anthology section. A small point may not be worthy of a full-length, formal paper but is important enough to warrant dissemination to other researchers. Research in progress may be of interest to other scholars in the field. A research approach ending in negative results needs to be shared to save others similar pitfalls. The Anthology section has been established to facilitate these forms of communication. Anthologies provide a means by which short manuscripts of less than 500 words can quickly appear in the AEJ. All submissions are formally reviewed by the Board of Editors. Officially cited as: Atl Econ J