Recent quotes:

Afternoon Must-Read: Arindrajit Dube and and Ben Zipperer: Pooling Multiple Case Studies Using Synthetic Controls: An Application to Minimum Wage Policies - Washington Center for Equitable Growth

We propose a simple, distribution-free method for pooling synthetic control case studies using the mean percentile rank… …We also test for heterogeneous treatment effects using the distribution of estimated ranks, which has a known form. We propose a cross-validation based procedure for model selection. Using 29 cases of state minimum wage increases between 1979 and 2013, we find a sizable, positive and statistically significant effect on the average teen wage. We do detect heterogeneity in the wage elasticities, consistent with differential bites in the policy. In contrast, the employment estimates suggest a small constant effect not distinguishable from zero.
#Arindrajit-Dube - equitablegrowth.org

Afternoon Must-Read: Arindrajit Dube, Laura Giuliano, and Jonathan Leonard: Fairness and Frictions: The Impact of Unequal Raises on Quit Behavior - Washington Center for Equitable Growth

At a large U.S. retailer… …discrete pay steps created discontinuities in raises, where workers initially earning within 1 cent of each other got raises that differed by 10 cents…. We find large causal effects of wages on quits…. The large effects of wages on quits mostly reflects relative-pay concerns and not market comparisons…. After accounting for peer effects, quits do not appear to be very sensitive to wages–suggesting substantial employer wage–setting power…. The relative-pay concerns are asymmetric… driven mainly by workers who are paid below their peers, suggesting concerns about fairness or disadvantageous inequity.
#Arindrajit-Dube #Labor-Market #Laura-Giuliano #Jonathan-Leonard #Behavioral-Economics #Relative-Income - equitablegrowth.org