Special Issue On The Economic Effects Of Minimum Wages In Germany: Editorial

摘要

This special issue of the German Economic Review addresses one of the most contentious areas of modern labor economics: the economic effects of statutory minimum wages. This topic is as challenging intellectually as the publication of these studies is timely. With respect to the analytical challenge to be mastered, the history of labor economic thought on this issue demonstrates the vicissitudes of empirical research in all the social sciences, not the least in Economics, which operate in an ever-changing environment, with new preferences, new institutions and new data emerging all the time. In fact, within the realm of economics, economists' opinions with respect to the economic effects of the minimum wage are one of the most interesting cases to study regarding the evolution and degeneration of a professional consensus.