abstract: 'We explore the suitability of the minimum wage as a policy instrument

  for reducing emerging income inequality created by new technologies. For

  this, we implement a binding minimum wage in a task-based framework, in

  which tasks are conducted by machines, low-skill, and high-skill

  workers. In this framework, an increasing minimum wage reduces the

  inequality between the low-skill wage and the other factor prices,

  whereas the share of income of low-skill workers in the national income

  is nonincreasing. Then, we analyze the impact of an automating economy

  along the extensive and intensive margins. In a setting with a minimum

  wage, it can be shown that automation at the extensive margin and the

  creation of new, labor-intensive tasks do not increase the aggregate

  output in general, as the displacement of low-skill workers counteracts

  the positive effects of cost-savings. Finally, we highlight a potential

  trade-off between less inequality of the factor prices and greater

  inequality of the income distribution when a minimum wage is introduced

  into an automating economy.'
affiliation: 'Eckardt, MS (Corresponding Author), Tech Univ Darmstadt, Dept Law \&
  Econ, Hsch Str 1, D-64289 Darmstadt, Germany.

  Eckardt, Marcel Steffen, Tech Univ Darmstadt, Dept Law \& Econ, Hsch Str 1, D-64289
  Darmstadt, Germany.'
author: Eckardt, Marcel Steffen
author-email: eckardt@vwl.tu-darmstadt.de
author_list:
- family: Eckardt
  given: Marcel Steffen
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1111/jpet.12528
earlyaccessdate: JUN 2021
eissn: 1467-9779
files: []
issn: 1097-3923
journal: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMIC THEORY
keywords: 'automation; displacement effects; employment; inequality; labor demand;

  minimum wage; tasks; wages'
keywords-plus: 'LOW-SKILL; JOBS; FUTURE; POLARIZATION; TECHNOLOGY; EMPLOYMENT; MACHINES;

  GROWTH; IMPACT; WORK'
language: English
month: FEB
number: '1'
number-of-cited-references: '38'
orcid-numbers: Eckardt, Marcel Steffen/0000-0003-2104-2747
pages: 58-91
papis_id: fb95f6159d9d12acdae79bd834165268
ref: Eckardt2022minimumwages
times-cited: '0'
title: Minimum wages in an automating economy
type: Article
unique-id: WOS:000665828700001
usage-count-last-180-days: '6'
usage-count-since-2013: '20'
volume: '24'
web-of-science-categories: Economics
year: '2022'