Minimum wage : a bibliometric analysis of this research topic

Abstract

PURPOSE: In this study, a bibliometric analysis of the scientific literature on the minimum wage is carried out to detect its evolution and point out future research trends.

APPROACH/METHODOLOGY/DESIGN: The bibliometric analysis of the minimum wage based on an extensive examination of publications indexed in Web of Science (WoS) de Clarivate Analytics. was conducted. This database is one of the most complete. It supports the reliability of the bibliometric analysis. The period of the analysis covered the years 1962- 2021. The analysis was carried out with the support of the VOSviewer software, version 1.6.18. The units of analysis used for the thematic areas were the keywords, KeyWords Plus (KW+); with them, bibliometric maps were created by applying a methodology based on coword analysis, clustering techniques and visualisation techniques.

FINDINGS: Two thousand eight hundred twenty-two articles in scientific journals have been detected. Groups of countries have been identified, analysing the subject matter, authors, their belonging organisations and the subject areas of the studies, and their evolution over time. In addition, it was recognised how minimum wage publications are clustered.

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The identification of the most productive publications with the highest number of citations can be used by future authors to define the most appropriate publication strategy. Likewise, the identification of the most relevant authors in the field can be helpful for decision-makers to meet potential collaborators.

ORIGINALITY/VALUE: To the authors' knowledge, this is the first bibliometric analysis of the literature on minimum wages. This article provides an exhaustive and up-to-date bibliometric analysis of this subject, allowing us to establish existing patterns and trends.