Here is the link, I am reviewing a bad book on the Clinton administration (A Fabulous Failure, by Lichtenstein and Stern). Here is one excerpt: Clinton-era welfare reform is another area where many commentators go astray, and Lichtenstein and Stein are no exception. The Clinton pronouncement “I have a plan to end welfare as we […]
My TLS essay on the Clinton administration
My TLS essay on the Clinton administration
10 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in human capital, labour economics, labour supply, poverty and inequality, welfare reform
LINDSAY MITCHELL: Labour hid developing welfare crisis
08 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of education, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, politics - New Zealand, poverty and inequality, welfare reform Tags: child poverty, family poverty
Lindsay Mitchell writes- When National became government in 2008, Finance Minister Bill English’s determination to understand the extent of benefit-dependency led them to commission Taylor Fry to produce annual actuarial reports. These were duly published at the MSD website every year but ceased when the government changed in 2017. Now however, an Official Information request […]
LINDSAY MITCHELL: Labour hid developing welfare crisis
*The Case Against Education* Makes the WSJ
01 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economics of education, economics of information, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality Tags: screening, signaling
Douglas Belkin, who has an admirably adversarial publication record on higher ed, spotlights my The Case Against Education in his latest piece in The Wall Street Journal:One result of this transactional attitude has been a sharp increase in cheating. College is one of the few products whose consumers try to get as little out of…
*The Case Against Education* Makes the WSJ
Unfettered: Fishback 25 Years Later
17 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, economic history, economics of information, economics of regulation, health and safety, history of economic thought, human capital, industrial organisation, international economics, labour economics, labour supply, liberalism, macroeconomics, Marxist economics, minimum wage, occupational choice, occupational regulation, poverty and inequality, unemployment, unions
A quarter century ago, economist Price Fishback published “Operations of ‘Unfettered’ Labor Markets: Exit and Voice in American Labor Markets at the Turn of the Century” in the prestigious Journal of Economic Literature. Fishback’s article is packed with insight… and understatement. But let’s back up. Virtually every standard history textbook describes U.S. labor markets before…
Unfettered: Fishback 25 Years Later
The Right and Wrong Way to Reduce Poverty, Part II
16 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, human capital, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, public economics, welfare reform Tags: child poverty, family poverty
In Part I of this series, I explained that the War on Poverty, launched by Lyndon Johnson and expanded by other profligate presidents, has been bad news for both taxpayers and poor people. More specifically, I shared some academic research showing how it led to a big increase in dependency on government. Let’s expand on […]
The Right and Wrong Way to Reduce Poverty, Part II
Family leave and the gender wage gap
16 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, econometerics, economic history, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality Tags: economics of fertility, family leave, gender wage gap, marriage and divorce, sex discrimination
The gender wage gap has been decreasing slowly and steadily over time. At least, that’s what I thought until I read this 2023 NBER Working Paper by Peter Blair (Harvard University) and Benjamin Posmanick (St. Bonaventure University). They present the following graph of the gender wage gap in the US (for White women, compared with White men,…
Family leave and the gender wage gap
Wrong from the start:
04 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in economic history, labour economics, labour supply, population economics, poverty and inequality Tags: capitalism and freedom, The Great Enrichment, The Great Escape, The Great Fact
In 1798, Thomas Malthus told the world to expect collapse – “Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio. Subsistence increases only in an arithmetical ratio.”
The Piketty-Saez-Zucman response to Auten and Splinter
17 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in politics - USA, labour economics, Public Choice, entrepreneurship, public economics, econometerics, applied price theory, financial economics, income redistribution, economic history, poverty and inequality Tags: top 1%
A number of you have asked me what I think of their response. The first thing I noticed is that Auten and Splinter make several major criticisms of PSZ, and yet PSZ respond to only one of them. On the others they are mysteriously silent. The second thing I noticed is that PSZ have been […]
The Piketty-Saez-Zucman response to Auten and Splinter
In a country supposedly infected by “white supremacy,” “white privilege” and “systemic racism” how did all of these non-white minority groups get to be SO successful in the US, outearning the typical White American household?
13 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in discrimination, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, politics - USA, poverty and inequality Tags: racial discrimination
LINDSAY MITCHELL: Oh, the irony
08 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality, welfare reform Tags: child poverty, economics of fertility, family poverty
Appointed by new Labour PM Jacinda Ardern in 2018, Cindy Kiro headed the Welfare Expert Advisory Group (WEAG) tasked with reviewing and recommending reforms to the welfare system. Kiro had been Children’s Commissioner during Helen Clark’s Labour government but returned to academia subsequently. In 2019 the WEAG reported back with 42 recommendations including:Recommendation 11: Remove…
LINDSAY MITCHELL: Oh, the irony
My Chris Williamson Interview
23 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, discrimination, economic history, economics of education, gender, health and safety, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, liberalism, occupational choice, poverty and inequality Tags: gender wage gap, sex discrimination
Several good friends warned me not to publish Don’t Be a Feminist. I appreciate their concern, but I’m glad I kept my own counsel. Here’s my interview with Chris Williamson on the book and beyond. Apparently he’s kind of a big deal…
My Chris Williamson Interview
How Socialist is Sweden?
19 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
in income redistribution, labour economics, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, public economics Tags: Sweden
During our Capitalism versus Socialism debate, Scott Sehon argued that Scandinavia really is quite socialist. Since I’m not on expect on Scandinavia, I asked Johan Norberg, author of the short book The Mirage of Swedish Socialism, as well as the recent The Capitalist Manifesto, to weigh in. Norberg kindly agreed. With great interest I have…
How Socialist is Sweden?
America’s top one percent has not been seeing a rising income share
18 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
in labour economics, Public Choice, entrepreneurship, human capital, occupational choice, public economics, income redistribution, labour supply, economic history, poverty and inequality Tags: top 1%
That is the topic of my latest Bloomberg column. The opener is this: Can a single self-published paper really refute decades of work by three famous economists? If the paper is the modestly titled “Income Inequality in the United States: Using Tax Data to Measure Long-Term Trends,” then the answer — with qualifications — is yes. And…
America’s top one percent has not been seeing a rising income share
Queensland University of Technology completely ditches merit-based hiring, favoring gender, “looks”, and personality
18 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality Tags: affirmative action, sex discrimination
This gem of a story is about how one Aussie university went to the logical endpoint of the diversity-trumps-merit controversy: Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane is apparently about to hire solely on the basis of diversity, and has erased any mention of the word “merit” in its hiring policy. This of course is ridiculous, […]
Queensland University of Technology completely ditches merit-based hiring, favoring gender, “looks”, and personality
On the 50th anniversary of the DPB
16 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
in economics of education, gender, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality, welfare reform Tags: economics of fertility, marriage and divorce
The Domestic Purposes Benefit has been variously described as a “disaster” (David McLoughlin 1995), an “economic lifeline” (Jane Kelsey 1995) and “an unfortunate experiment” (Muriel Newman 2009).Its effect on family formation can never be definitively ascertained. But the growth of the sole parent family dependent on welfare has correlated with more poverty, more child abuse…
On the 50th anniversary of the DPB
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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