CAN THE MINIMUM WAGE REDUCE POVERTY AND INEQUALITY?

Minimum wage has long been a very controversial policy instrument. Partisans put forward its capacity to reduce poverty and diminish inequality, whereas adversaries emphasize its impact on the cost of labor and deleterious effects on employment. Yet both views have been subject to severe well-founded critiques. What lessons can be drawn from the long debate among economists? And what can we learn from the experience of countries such as France, where the minimum wage has long been a cornerstone of social and economic policy?