• Corpus ID: 7010654

Selection Bias in Minimum-Wage Research ? A Meta-Regression Analysis

@inproceedings{Doucouliagos2008SelectionBI,
  title={Selection Bias in Minimum-Wage Research ? A Meta-Regression Analysis},
  author={Hristos Doucouliagos and T. D. Stanley},
  year={2008}
}

• Hristos Doucouliagos, T. Stanley
• Published 2008
• Economics

Card and Krueger’s meta-analysis of the employment effects of minimum wages challenged existing theory. Unfortunately, their meta-analysis confused publication selection with the absence of a genuine empirical effect. We apply recently developed meta-analysis methods to 64 US minimum-wage studies and corroborate that Card and Krueger’s findings were nevertheless correct. The minimum-wage effects literature is contaminated by publication selection bias, which we estimate to be slightly larger than the average reported minimumwage effect. Once this publication selection is corrected, little or no evidence of a negative association between minimum wages and employment remains. (P)ublication bias is leading to a new formulation of Gresham’s law — like bad money, bad research drives out good. (Bland 1988: 450)