What happens if the minSdkVersion is lower than the targetSdkVersion?

I do most of my development with the project set to the minSdkVersion level. That pretty much guarantees that I'm not using any more recent APIs. I then switch to my targetSdkVersion level before publishing the app. The only problem I've run into so far is that the lower level doesn't support some manifest syntax that I need to use in production. (Level 3, for instance, doesn't support targetSdkVersion.) I just fix up the manifest after switching to the higher level.