| Sumario: | Part of a special section on issues related to the minimum wage, mandated health insurance, and the welfare reform program. The writers offer a critique of the suggestion that the general method used by David Card and Alan B. Krueger in their analyses of the effects of the 1992 rise in the New Jersey minimum wage is a superior one by which to judge minimum wage effects. They contend that however valid the criticisms that have been presented against the data and data collection methods employed by Card and Krueger, improved data that are analyzed using the same general approach to the problem do not warrant much confidence. Furthermore, they purport that even if confidence could be placed in findings obtained for the impact of the minimum wage increase on the fast-food industry, it is highly questionable whether these findings can be generalized. In sum, they assert that the New Jersey minimum wage represents nothing like the “natural experiment” that Card and Krueger have argued it to be.
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