Estabilidad de la demanda de trabajo y efecto del salario minimo sobre el Empleo: El caso Chileno

In this paper I find evidence of a structural change in the labor demand in Chile in 2001. The break is mainly characterized by an increase in the employment-GDP elasticity. Additionally, separating labor demand by sectors, I find evidence of a stronger negative impact of the minimum wages on employment in the tradable sector in the late nineties. A minimum wage increase of 10 % above the average wage of the economy destroys 3.6 % of jobs in the tradable sector. These results highlight the importance of the economic growth on employment generation as well as the cost of not considering the business cycle situation when the minimum wage changes are discussed