In this paper, we survey theoretical models of the effect of the minimum wage and, in somewhat greater detail, evidence of its effect on employment and unemployment. Our discussion of the theory emphasizes recent work using two-sector and heterogeneous-worker models. We then summarize and evaluate the large literature on employment and unemployment effects of the minimum on teenagers. Finally, we survey the evidence of the effect of the minimum wage on adult employment, and on employment in low-wage industries and areas.

Curtis Gilroy is a Senior Economist with the Minimum Wage Study Commission. The opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the institutions with which they are affiliated. We benefited from comments of Jacob Mincer and Finis Welch on an earlier version of the paper, and from the assistance of John Stinson in obtaining the data. Ann Levin and Nancy Zeitler provided helpful research assistance. The research reported here is part of the NBER'S research program in Labor Studies.

Curtis Gilroy is a Senior Economist with the Minimum Wage Study Commission. The opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the institutions with which they are affiliated. We benefited from comments of Jacob Mincer and Finis Welch on an earlier version of the paper, and from the assistance of John Stinson in obtaining the data. Ann Levin and Nancy Zeitler provided helpful research assistance. The research reported here is part of the NBER'S research program in Labor Studies.

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This study uses a sample drawn from the National Longitudinal Surveys of young men attending college in the 1960's. Some of the principal conclusions of the multivariate analyses are: (1) Factors determining persistence vary widely with the stage of the undergraduate career; (2) race and parental SES bear no net relation to dropping out;(3) the impact of ability declines with progress toward graduation; (4) entering college in a two-year institution is inversely associated with persistence. These and other findings demonstrate that much previous research has perpetuated erroneous inferences about dropping out of college, not the least of which is that the process can be modeled in a single equation representing the likelihood of graduation by any given group of freshmen.Notwithstanding a vast literature on the achievement of success in higher education, there are major gaps in knowledge about the determinants of x