TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Démurger, Sylvie
AU  - Lin, Carl
AU  - Schmillen, Achim
AU  - Wang, Dewen
        TI  - Falling into Poverty or Escaping from It? The Effect of the Minimum Wage in Urban China
        PY  - 2025/Dec/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 18326
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp18326
        AB  - Minimum wages are found to have an inconclusive impact on poverty. Using China’s individual-level panel dataset combined with county-level minimum wages, our paper shows that minimum wages have a moderate yet sustained effect on poverty reduction. The results show a two-sided effect: higher minimum wages help pull some workers out of poverty, while simultaneously pushing others in. This dynamic of larger “pulling” effects being counterbalanced by smaller “pushing” effects explains why existing studies often find that minimum wages have a negligible or minimal impact on poverty reduction. Notably, the poverty reduction effect is most pronounced for female workers.
        KW  - poverty
KW  - minimum wages
KW  - China
        ER  -