The impact of neoliberalism on labour market freedom in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Venezuela
22 Jul 2015 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic history, economics of regulation, growth disasters, growth miracles, labour economics, labour supply, minimum wage, unions Tags: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, conspiracy theories, employment law, employment regulation, Index of Economic Freedom, Leftover Left, Mont Pelerin Society, neoliberalism, Twitter left, Venezuela
All was quiet on the neoliberalism front in Latin America for the last 20 years. In yet another defeat for the Mont Pelerin Society led transnational conspiracy, labour market freedom has declined in the four countries in figure 1. I’ve always had my doubts about the ability of a transnational conspiracy to be led by a society with such a crappy website.
Figure 1: Index of Economic Freedom, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Venezuela, 95 – 2015
Source: Index of Economic Freedom 2015.
Unemployment rates by education in the USA
21 Jul 2015 Leave a comment
in business cycles, economics of education, global financial crisis (GFC), great recession, human capital, job search and matching, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, unemployment Tags: education premium, labour market demographics
June jobless rate for people 25+ with
B.A. or more 2.5%
High school diploma 5.4%
No H.S. 8.2%
on.wsj.com/1LG1B6z http://t.co/luUUuw9h1V—
Sudeep Reddy (@Reddy) July 02, 2015
Trends in labour market freedom in the UK, USA, Germany and France – Index of Economic Freedom rankings
21 Jul 2015 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of regulation, global financial crisis (GFC), job search and matching, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, minimum wage, politics - USA, unions Tags: British economy, employment law, employment regulation, Eurosclerosis, France, Germany, Index of Economic Freedom
The writers of the Index of Economic Freedom at the Heritage foundation really loves the USA and didn’t think much of the Conservative Party – Liberal Democratic Party coalition government because labour market freedom actually fell in the UK during their administration. Bring back Tony Blair, all is forgiven. The information on their website throws no insight into why this reduction in labour market freedom in Britain happened.
Figure 1: Index of Economic Freedom, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Venezuela, 95 – 2015 
Source: Index of Economic Freedom 2015.
Fortunately for Germany, labour market freedom increased over the course of the global financial crisis and its aftermath. This helps explains low unemployment in Germany during that period. Nothing much happened in France in regard to labour market freedom.
Unwanted pregnancy rates and education
20 Jul 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, politics - USA Tags: economics of fertility, economics of the family, single parents
Equilibrium unemployment rates in Canada, USA and UK, 1962 – 2016
18 Jul 2015 Leave a comment
in business cycles, job search and matching, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, unemployment Tags: British economy, Canada, equilibrium unemployment rate, natural unemployment rate
Figure 1 suggests a lot more structural change in the Canadian and British labour market in the 1970s and 1980s.
Figure 1: equilibrium unemployment rates, Canada, USA and UK, 1962 – 2016
Source: OECD Economic Outlook June 2015 via OECD StatExtract.
Nothing much at all seems to have happened to the equilibrium unemployment rate in the USA since the OECD first started calculating it. I doubt that so that will be subject of a future blog. Namely, the large changes in natural unemployment rates in the post-war period, largely to demographic changes such as the baby boom.
How to argue for inequality and neoliberalism when arguing dead set against it
17 Jul 2015 Leave a comment
in economic growth, economic history, human capital, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, politics - New Zealand, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: Leftover Left, neoliberalism, top 1%
On 12 August last, Closer Together New Zealand posted a chart showing average hourly wages had been stagnant for 20 years and then started growing again in 1993. Closer Together New Zealand then rounded up the usual suspects of the Left over Left.
Later that month in a comment on that post, a chart was posted showing that inequality had been increasing quite rapidly in the late 1980s and early 1990s in New Zealand. There were a range of economic reforms Closer Together New Zealand didn’t like in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Closer Together New Zealand did not notice their second chart showed there had been a large increase in inequality, and their first chart showed that this was followed by the return of regular average hourly wages after 20 years of stagnation.
I am not so vulgar as to suggest correlation is causation, but it is amusing to watch that one day a chart is posted showing a resumption of wages growth after 20 years of wage stagnation and the next day a chart is posted showing that the major economic developments in the preceding years were a large increase in inequality and substantial economic liberalisation.
To add to my amusement, a companion site Inequality A New Zealand Conversation posted a chart showing the top 1% had not had much at all in income growth for the last 20 years while most everyone else had. This spike in the incomes of the top 1% prior to about 1994 was followed by the resumption in average wages growth after 1994.
What group has by far the lowest jobless rate?
17 Jul 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of education, human capital, job search and matching, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, unemployment Tags: College premium, compensating differentials, graduate premium, labour demographics
What group has by far the lowest jobless rate? College grads on.wsj.com/1Mtk8l9 http://t.co/27ft9qYjvz—
WSJ Central Banks (@WSJCentralBanks) June 05, 2015
Motherhood explains 80% of the gender wage gap, up from 30% 30 years ago
16 Jul 2015 Leave a comment
in discrimination, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice Tags: asymmetric marriage premium, economics of families, gender wage gap, motherhood penalty
#Women's earnings drop 20% after 1st child & gap remains the same even 20 years later @LSEEcon bit.ly/1M60KfJ http://t.co/UpoqLkhbl2—
STICERD (@STICERD_LSE) July 15, 2015
Source: Parenthood and the Gender Gap: Evidence from Denmark by Henrik Jacobsen Kleven, Camille Landais and Jakob Egholt Søgaard, University of Copenhagen January 2015 at http://eml.berkeley.edu/~webfac/auerbach/Landais2015.pdf
If government “programmes have been doing very little to help children out of poverty”, what halved child poverty in the last 20 years? Economic growth?
16 Jul 2015 Leave a comment
in economic growth, labour economics, labour supply, minimum wage, politics - New Zealand, poverty and inequality, unemployment, welfare reform Tags: child poverty, family poverty, family tax credits, in-work tax credits, social insurance, welfare reform, welfare state
RNZ: Govt advised in 2013 "social mobility" approach won't materially address child poverty. rnz.to/1RwVWoj http://t.co/nfd2gY0qcH—
Alastair Thompson (@althecat) July 14, 2015
Figure 1: child poverty (%) in New Zealand (before and after housing costs), 1982 – 2013
Source: Bryan Perry, Household incomes in New Zealand: Trends in indicators of inequality and hardship 1982 to 2013. Ministry of Social Development (July 2014), Tables F.6 and F.7.
Low performers in science by gender, USA, UK, Japan, Canada, Australia and New Zealand
16 Jul 2015 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, labour economics, labour supply Tags: cognitive psychology, educational psychology, lost boys, PISA, Psychology, reversing gender gap
Figure 1: % of students achieving a proficiency level below 2 in science by gender, USA, UK, New Zealand, Japan, Canada and Australia, 2012
Source: OECD StatExtract.
And the rich got richer, who cares
16 Jul 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, Austrian economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of education, economics of regulation, economics of religion, energy economics, entrepreneurship, environmental economics, financial economics, growth disasters, growth miracles, income redistribution, industrial organisation, international economics, labour economics, labour supply, liberalism, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, rentseeking, survivor principle, transport economics, urban economics Tags: Deirdre McCloskey, entrepreneurial alertness, The Great Enrichment, The Great Escape, The Great Fact, top 1%
"The rich got richer, true. But…" —@DeirdreMcClosk buff.ly/1Imdv4o http://t.co/M3ERx3JTIn—
HumanProgress.org (@humanprogress) June 28, 2015
Unemployment rates of immigrants and natives in OECD member countries
16 Jul 2015 Leave a comment
in job search and matching, labour economics, labour supply, unemployment Tags: economics of immigration, unemployment rates
There were large cross-country differences in long-term unemployment duration both before and after the GFC
15 Jul 2015 Leave a comment
in Euro crisis, global financial crisis (GFC), great recession, job search and matching, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, unemployment, welfare reform Tags: equilibrium unemployment rate, Eurosclerosis, natural unemployment rate, unemployment duration
77% more long-term unemployed people than before the crisis – We need them back in work! bit.ly/1JTTzYm #Jobs http://t.co/EFRGclFVms—
OECD Social (@OECD_Social) July 10, 2015
Hysteresis in practice, Delong-Summers Variety @delong @LHSummers http://t.co/urqxQBi6NE—
Roger E. A. Farmer (@farmerrf) July 23, 2015
How many working poor in USA, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand?
14 Jul 2015 Leave a comment
in international economics, labour supply, minimum wage, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, welfare reform Tags: Australia, British economy, Canada, low pay, New Zealand, social insurance, welfare state, working poor
Figure 1: working poor – proportion of employed persons with income below the poverty line (50% of median disposable income) living in households with a working age head and at least one worker in USA, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, 2013
Source: In It Together – Why Less Inequality Benefits All – © OECD 2015, OECD Income Distribution Database (IDD), www.oecd.org/social/income-distribution-database.htm, Table 1.A1.1. Key indicators on the distribution of household disposable income and poverty, 2007, 2011 and 2013 or most recent year.
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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