Minimum Wage and Labor Taxation: Insights from a Bibliometric Analysis of Labor Costs and Firm Performance

Substantial transformations in the contemporary labor market represent a significant challenge for both employees and firms. Debates on the minimum wage, labor taxation and firm performance in this context of uncertainty have become relevant in the academic literature. Existing studies highlight mixed effects, resulting from different theoretical approaches and the use of diverse methodologies. This article aims to analyze the effects of the minimum wage on the firm-level outcomes and labor taxation. The paper adopts a bibliometric approach, using a dataset of 501 scientific documents extracted in January 2026 from the Web of Science database. Using the VOSviewer software, networks of co-authorship, co-citation and bibliographic coupling are constructed, allowing the identification of the most influential countries, authors and thematic clusters, in relation to the formulated research questions. The results of the analysis indicate a growing body of academic literature, characterized by a high level of international collaboration between countries and among universities and organizations. The importance of the fiscal system and firm-level adaptation mechanisms is highlighted, as these have the potential to influence labor market policies. The article contributes to the economics literature by providing an overview of existing research and by identifying future research directions. The bibliometric findings presented are relevant for informing wage and fiscal policies aimed at providing organizational performance.