Minimum wage and youth employment in regions of the Visegrád countries

This paper estimates the youth employment effects of minimum wages in the Visegrád countries: Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. The analyses are based on a regional panel dataset for the period 2003–16. Our results indicate that changes in minimum wages measured as a ratio of regional average wages have not negatively affected youth employment rates in the Visegrád countries at the national level. Detailed analyses indicate that changes in the ratio of minimum to average wages may have dampened regional youth employment in Hungary in 2008–11, in Czechia in 2003–7, and in several regions in Poland and Slovakia throughout the full sample period.