Plenty of people have commented on New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s proposal to lower food prices by creating city-owned grocery stores, but there is still more to be said about this plan. Mamdani either thinks or believes that voters think that store owners are making huge profit through … Continue reading →
Failing to Learn the Lessons of History
Failing to Learn the Lessons of History
01 Jul 2025 1 Comment
in applied price theory, economics of bureaucracy, entrepreneurship, income redistribution, industrial organisation, labour economics, politics - USA, Public Choice, public economics, unions, urban economics
Weaker incentives in unionized plants make them more likely to close
27 Jun 2025 1 Comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, history of economic thought, labour economics, unions Tags: union power
Unionized plants have worse incentive alignment: 26% less likely to offer performance-based bonuses. 11% less likely to promote based on performance 13% less likely to dismiss workers for poor performance. Consequently, unionized plants have: Higher rates of business closures, lower investment slower employment growth BOTTOM LINE: right-to-work states (no unions) have higher employment and better outcomes. CITE:Maksimovic, Vojislav and…
Weaker incentives in unionized plants make them more likely to close
Palagashvili and Stossel on How Vile Labor Unions Can Be
20 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, survivor principle, unions
TweetIn this video, GMU Econ alum – and my Mercatus Center colleague – Liya Palagashvili talks with John Stossel about the economic destructiveness of labor unions. The post Palagashvili and Stossel on How Vile Labor Unions Can Be appeared first on Cafe Hayek.
Palagashvili and Stossel on How Vile Labor Unions Can Be
Aus Deputy PM Chief of Staff resigns due to bullying
19 Oct 2024 Leave a comment
in health and safety, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, politics - Australia, unions
News.com.au reports: Richard Marles’ chief of staff says she is “being bullied out” of her dream job after reporting misbehaviour directly to the Deputy Prime Minister. In a press conference on Thursday morning, Jo Tarnawsky said she “loved” her job working for Mr Marles, whom she had known for “more than 10 years”. But she […]
Aus Deputy PM Chief of Staff resigns due to bullying
The Santa Claus Election
15 Sep 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economic growth, economics of education, entrepreneurship, fiscal policy, health and safety, income redistribution, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, politics - USA, Public Choice, public economics, unions Tags: 2024 presidential election, taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment, taxation and labour supply

For libertarians, this is a very depressing election (a feeling we tend to have every four years, so a familiar experience). What basically happens is that two politicians try to bribe us with our own money. This year, we have Kamala Harris, who was even worse than Bernie Sanders in the big-spender contest. And we […]
The Santa Claus Election
Unfettered: Fishback 25 Years Later
04 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, discrimination, economic history, health and safety, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, occupational choice, poverty and inequality, unemployment, unions Tags: racial discrimination

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” 1,762 more words
Unfettered: Fishback 25 Years Later
Quotation of the Day…
21 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in labour economics, Milton Friedman, unions
Tweet… is from page 124 of Milton and Rose Friedman’s essential 1962 volume, Capitalism and Freedom: If unions raise wage rates in a particular occupation or industry, they necessarily make the amount of employment available in that occupation or industry less than it otherwise would be – just as any higher price cuts down the…
Quotation of the Day…
Shipwrecked: America’s Offshore Wind Industry Being Crushed By Rising Construction Costs
18 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, labour economics, unions Tags: wind power

2023 was the year when the offshore wind industry’s grand implosion began. Major investors bailed out as the insane cost of attempting to (occasionally) generate electricity with no commercial value in hostile marine environments began to bite. Dozens of projects have been scrapped and others are now highly doubtful. And for those wind power outfits […]
Shipwrecked: America’s Offshore Wind Industry Being Crushed By Rising Construction Costs
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
Union Busted
09 Oct 2023 Leave a comment
in labour economics, unions Tags: union power
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) just filed for bankruptcy because it lost a case with a port operator in Portland. The back story is amazing. The ILWU is one of the most powerful unions in the United States. Since bloody riots in 1934 it has controlled all 29 seaports on the west coast of the […]
Union Busted
Good Intentions 1of3 Introduction and Public Schools with Walter Williams
13 Sep 2022 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, comparative institutional analysis, discrimination, economic history, economics of education, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, poverty and inequality, unemployment, unions, welfare reform Tags: child poverty, family poverty, racial discrimination
The fall (and rise?) of unions in the US
11 Aug 2022 Leave a comment
in labour economics, labour supply, politics - USA, unions Tags: /, union power
Who gains from pay transparency?
31 Jul 2022 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, econometerics, gender, labour economics, labour supply, poverty and inequality, unions Tags: gender wage gap
Milton Friedman – The Real World Effects Of Unions
01 Jul 2022 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, economics of education, economics of regulation, labour economics, labour supply, Milton Friedman, poverty and inequality, unemployment, unions Tags: union power, union wage premium
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