. The effects of living wage laws : Evidence from failed or derailed living wage campaigns
 S. Adams and D. Neumark, Institute for the Study of Labor, Bonn, IZA discussion paper, n° 1566, April, 21 p., (2005).

Résumé - Summary
Living wage campaigns have succeeded in about 100 jurisdictions in the United States but have also been unsuccessful in numerous cities. These unsuccessful campaigns provide a better control group or counterfactual for estimating the effects of living wage laws than the broader set of all cities without a law, and also permit the separate estimation of the effects of living wage laws and living wage campaigns. We find that living wage laws raise wages of low-wage workers but reduce employment among the least-skilled, especially when the laws cover business assistance recipients or are accompanied by similar laws in nearby cities.