Vliv minimální mzdy na nezaměstnanost pracovníků klasifikovaných jako ISCO 900 ve vybraných zemích střední a východní Evropy

This thesis examines whether changes in the relative level of the minimum wage affect the unemployment rate of workers classified as ISCO 900 in selected Central and Eastern European countries over the period 2011–2024. The thesis tests the hypothesis that increases in the minimum wage raise the unemployment rate of workers classified as ISCO 900. The thesis uses an unbalanced panel of ten countries constructed from aggregated Eurostat data. The empirical strategy relies on fixed-effects panel regressions with country and time fixed effects and on a difference-in-differences approach, in which the effect is identified through an interaction between an ISCO 900 indicator and the relative minimum wage measured by the Kaitz index, with ISCO 900 compared to the control group ISCO 700 or, alternatively, ISCO 400. The models further control for real GDP growth, inflation, and the tax wedge. The results show that the net effect of changes in the relative minimum wage on unemployment in ISCO 900, defined as the sum of the relevant coefficients, is not statistically different from zero according to a Wald test, while the point estimates are small and often slightly negative. The analysis also indicates that unemployment in ISCO 900 is more strongly linked to the macroeconomic cycle, in particular to real GDP growth. The thesis provides new estimates for ISCO 900, including a gender breakdown, and contributes to the empirical evidence on minimum-wage effects in Central and Eastern Europe.