Fast food and unnatural experiments: Another perspective on the New Jersey minimum wage

We have argued that the difference-in-differences method of examining the effects of the New Jersey minimum wage, especially when the differences in differences are measured shortly after the change, is questionable. That being the case, if we nonetheless take this method seriously, and if following Card and Krueger we look at the data shortly before and after the New Jersey minimum was imposed, then the only statistically significant evidence we can find supports the conclusion that the New Jersey minimum reduced employment of young workers.