Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 July 2017
Wage dispersion is a critical factor in determining the impact of a minimum wage and severance payments on job creation and destruction in a general equilibrium model with search frictions. When wage dispersion is low, the minimum wage and severance payments behave as substitutes. However, as dispersion in wages increases, these policies become complements. The model is estimated using data from Chile and used to perform quantitative welfare analysis.
Financial support from the Ministry of Science and Feder Funds, under Project SEJ-2007-62656, is gratefully acknowledged. I am grateful to Giuseppe Moscarini, Björn Brügemann, Eduardo Engel, David Weiss and Marcello Sartarelli for helpful comments and suggestions.