Productivity puzzle: Increase NMW?

Increasing productivity is a top priority challenge for the Japanese economy under the current population decline, and the idea of raising the minimum wage in order to spur productivity growth has piqued interest among policymakers. This column suggests two ways in which firms may respond to a minimum wage hike: some may carry out reforms to increase productivity in response to the hike, while other less-productive firms may exit the market. The overall effect on productivity will vary across countries and firms, since the relative strength of these two effects depends on a country’s firms’ characteristics and market structure.

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