TY  - JOUR
AU  - Kessler,Daniel P.
AU  - Katz,Lawrence
TI  - Prevailing Wage Laws and Construction Labor Markets
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 7454
PY  - 1999
Y2  - December 1999
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7454
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7454.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Daniel Kessler
Hoover Institution
Stanford University
434 Galvez Mall
Stanford, CA  94305
Tel: 650/723-0596
E-Mail: fkessler@stanford.edu

Lawrence F. Katz
Department of Economics
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA  02138
Tel: 617/495-5148
Fax: 617/613-1245
E-Mail: lkatz@harvard.edu
M2  - featured in NBER digest on 2000-05-01
AB  - Prevailing wage laws, which require that construction workers employed by private contractors on public projects be paid at least the wages and benefits that are "prevailing" for similar work in or near the locality in which the project is located, have been the focus of an extensive policy debate. We find that the relative wages of construction workers decline slightly after the repeal of a state prevailing wage law. However, the small overall impact of law repeal masks substantial differences in outcomes for different groups of construction employees.  Repeal is associated with a sizeable reduction in the union wage premium and a significant narrowing of the black/nonblack wage differential for construction workers.
ER  -