After a few days of ‘rest’ (by which I really mean some intensely long work days), I’m going to pick up again on my recent series of posts about the minimum wage (see here for the most recent post), but returning to more familiar ground – the disemployment effects of the minimum wage. The story…
Effects of the minimum wage on the nonprofit sector
Effects of the minimum wage on the nonprofit sector
19 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economic history, labour economics, labour supply, minimum wage
Minimum Wages, Efficiency, and Welfare
17 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, econometerics, labour economics, labour supply, minimum wage
Recently Alex raised some doubts, to say the least, about the Card-Krueger view of minimum wage hikes. Well, it turns out there is more, and a new consensus is on the verge of forming. Here are David Berger, Kyle Herkenhoff, and Simon Mongey, from a new Econometrica piece: Many argue that minimum wages can prevent efficiency […]
Minimum Wages, Efficiency, and Welfare
Guest Post: NEW ZEALAND’s RETIREMENT PENSION
17 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in budget deficits, fiscal policy, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, public economics, welfare reform Tags: ageing society
A guest post by Sir Roger Douglas: Michael Littlewood’s ‘Guest Post’ for David Farrar on pensions, and his belief that our social welfare system is fit for purpose and doesn’t need change, reminded me of why New Zealand is currently well on the way to bankruptcy, and why our brightest young people are leaving the […]
Guest Post: NEW ZEALAND’s RETIREMENT PENSION
How employers respond to minimum wage increases
15 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, labour economics, labour supply, minimum wage, unemployment Tags: offsetting behavior, unintended consequences
In yesterday’s post, I made reference to this 2021 article by Jeffrey Clemens (University of California at San Diego), published in the Journal of Economic Perspectives (open access). Clemens puts forward an interesting perspective on the debate about the observed employment impacts of the minimum wage (or lack thereof):…I contend that controversies over the economics of minimum wages…
How employers respond to minimum wage increases
Future unemployment will be (mostly) voluntary unemployment
14 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of education, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, politics - Australia, unemployment
A shortage of electricians means that those willing to endure long shifts and live on remote sites can potentially earn up to A$200,000 (US$124,000) a year — double the national average salary and not far off the average MP salary. “It’s a cup half full/half empty life. You do 12-hour shifts, there’s the heat, the […]
Future unemployment will be (mostly) voluntary unemployment
Ireland: Good Corporate Tax Policy vs. Bad Government Spending Policy
11 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in budget deficits, business cycles, economic growth, economic history, Euro crisis, fiscal policy, global financial crisis (GFC), great recession, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, macroeconomics, monetary economics, public economics Tags: Ireland, taxation and investment
I’m a big fan of Ireland’s low corporate tax rate for three reasons. First, it shows that good tax policy generates positive economic outcomes as per-capita GDP in Ireland has grown by record amounts. Second, it shows that lower tax rates can in some cases lead to more revenue. Sort of a turbo-charged version of […]
Ireland: Good Corporate Tax Policy vs. Bad Government Spending Policy
Does the Gender Wage Gap Actually Reflect Taste Discrimination Against Women?
11 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, econometerics, economics of education, economics of information, economics of media and culture, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply Tags: gender wage gap
One explanation of the gender wage gap is taste discrimination, as in Becker (1957). We test for taste discrimination by constructing a novel measure of misogyny using Google Trends data on searches that include derogatory terms for women. We find—surprisingly, in our view—that misogyny is an economically meaningful and statistically significant predictor of the wage […]
Does the Gender Wage Gap Actually Reflect Taste Discrimination Against Women?
Goldilocks and the Laffer Curve
09 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, budget deficits, economic growth, entrepreneurship, fiscal policy, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, politics - USA, public economics Tags: taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment, taxation and labour supply
Other than Art Laffer, I think of myself as the world’s biggest advocate of the Laffer Curve. I’ve literally written hundreds of columns explaining and promoting the concept. My goal is to help people understand that there is not a linear relationship between tax rates and tax revenue. Why is this the case? Because when […]
Goldilocks and the Laffer Curve
A negative productivity shock from working from home
08 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, experimental economics, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, managerial economics, occupational choice, organisational economics, personnel economics Tags: economics of pandemics
Identity-based hiring goes wild in New Zealand
05 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economic history, economics of education, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, occupational choice, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking Tags: affirmative action, Age of Enlightenment, constitutional law, free speech, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left
Just to show you how, in the hiring process, New Zealand gives much more weight to identity than to merit, I enclose part of the job description for the position of Chief Operating Officer of Wellington Water, the water utility for the Greater Wellington region (Wellington, a lovely city, is the capital of New Zealand). […]
Identity-based hiring goes wild in New Zealand
By 2025 we were supposed to have closed the gap
05 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in economic growth, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, human capital, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, politics - New Zealand, poverty and inequality
Don Brash and Michael Reddell write – When Don was young and Michael’s parents were young, New Zealand had among the very highest material standards of living in the world. It really was, in the old line, one of the very best places to bring up children. But no longer. For 75 years now, with […]
By 2025 we were supposed to have closed the gap
Mocking European Statism
04 Feb 2025 1 Comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, comparative institutional analysis, economic growth, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, environmental economics, financial economics, industrial organisation, international economics, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, liberalism, macroeconomics, Marxist economics, property rights, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking, survivor principle, theory of the firm Tags: employment law, European Union
I have a special page for humor involving Europe, but I have not added to it since sharing some Brexit humor in 2016. Let’s being the process of catching up with some amusing cartoons and memes mocking our government-loving cousins on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. I’ve made the serious point that bureaucrats […]
Mocking European Statism
Spoiling for a Fight: Why Challenging Birthright Citizenship is a Win-Win for Trump
04 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in International law, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: 2024 presidential election, constitutional law, economics of immigration, regressive left
Below is my column in the Hill on the move of the Trump Administration against birthright citizenship. The Trump Administration believes that this is fight worth either winning or even losing in the courts. Roughly half of the country oppose birthright citizenship. The key is where those voters are coming from. The minority of voters […]
Spoiling for a Fight: Why Challenging Birthright Citizenship is a Win-Win for Trump
The Child Penalty: An International View
03 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, econometerics, economics of education, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice Tags: economics of fertility, gender wage gap, marriage and divorce
It’s well-known that when a couple has a child, the average woman experiences a “child penalty” in labor market outcomes, while outcomes for the man are largely unchanged. For a discussion of this pattern using US data, here’s an article by Jane Waldfogel from back in 1998 in the Journal of Economic Perspectives. As that…
The Child Penalty: An International View
Babies and the Macroeconomy
02 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, development economics, economic history, economics of love and marriage, economics of marriage, human capital, labour economics, labour supply Tags: ageing society, economics of fertility, marriage and divorce
By Claudia Goldin. From NPR’s Planet Money.”Countries around the world have seen a jaw-dropping decline in fertility rates. In this paper, Claudia Goldin, the 2023 winner of the Nobel Prize in economic sciences, offers a new theory to help explain why (listen to The Indicator’s conversation with her back in 2021). Goldin starts by providing…
Babies and the Macroeconomy
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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