US-Mexico border wall faces tough Texas terrain
13 Jan 2018 Leave a comment
in politics - USA, population economics, Public Choice Tags: economics of borders, economics of immigration, illegal immigration
How much do US state legislature members get paid?
10 Jan 2018 Leave a comment
in constitutional political economy, politics - USA, Public Choice
Source: Ballotpedia at https://ballotpedia.org/Comparison_of_state_legislative_salaries
Note: the amounts below $1000 are expenses for daily attendance. Lower house pay is used.
Trigger warning American political junkies: most common political insults
08 Jan 2018 Leave a comment
in politics - USA Tags: political insults
Is political correctness why Trump won? – Unsafe Space Tour, Harvard
01 Jan 2018 Leave a comment
in politics - USA Tags: 2016 presidential election, moral psychology, political correctness, political psychology, Steve Pinker
Firing Line with William F. Buckley Jr.: Presidential Hopeful: Ronald Reagan
28 Dec 2017 Leave a comment
in politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: Ronald Reagan
#FightFor15 must have been an ambit claim?
24 Dec 2017 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, labour economics, minimum wage, politics - USA
https://twitter.com/EconBizFin/status/626687442834300928
The fight for $15 movement in the minimum wage could not have been serious about doubling the minimum wage to $15.
Perhaps to their own surprise, they won despite living in what they say is an oligarchic political system dominated by the rich which keeps the poor poorer and poorer.
Why California’s #minimumwage will backfire, Part I: CA is business-hostile now@Mark_J_Perry goo.gl/7wbr14 https://t.co/y1pF4UGATK—
AEIdeas Blog (@AEIdeas) April 05, 2016
California, New York, San Francisco and Seattle are among the states and cities increasing their local minimum wages, currently of up to $12, to $15 by 2021 or 2022.
There is nothing special about minimum wages when it comes to mandating wage rises. If it is safe to double the minimum wage, it is safe to double everybody’s wage. That logic is undeniable.
The efficiency wage and inequality of bargaining power arguments that suggest that the wage rise will be paid out of employers’ profits are not special to minimum wage employers.
https://twitter.com/dylanmatt/status/720786520509165568
If minimum wage employers can handle a doubling of their labour costs, any employer can handle the doubling of the cost of employing any of their employees?
Some such as Arindrajit Dube say that these very large wage increases by cities and states in their federal system are experiments “worth running and monitoring” (Lane 2016). As Dube said recently:
“… 30 to 40 percent of the California workforce will get a raise … This will be a big experiment. It’s far outside of our evidence base… If you’re risk-averse, this would not be the scale at which to try things. On the other hand, if you think that wages are really low and they’ve been low for a really long time and we can afford to take some risks, doing things at this scale will get us more evidence” (Lee 2016).
Noah Smith (2016) concluded that the empirical literature on minimum wages suggests that a 10% minimum wage increase would reduce employment by about 2% so doubling the federal minimum wage would see the employment of young people go down by one-fifth. Smith (2016) said this is a
“small but real effect — a $15 federal minimum wage might throw a million kids out of work”.
You should remember that in the USA, if you lose your job, your unemployment insurance is time-limited.
Venn Diagram of the Day on the $15 Minimum Wage…… https://t.co/aANb26iShi—
Mark J. Perry (@Mark_J_Perry) November 29, 2015
It is not like New Zealand where you can stay on the unemployment benefit forever if you are priced out of the market by a doubling of the minimum wage.
Since I was indirectly quoted in a WaPo op-ed on CA min wage, here's exactly what I wrote to Mr. Lane. (@tylercowen) https://t.co/Q326lgyvzz—
Arindrajit Dube (@arindube) March 31, 2016
What happens to minimum wage workers who lost their jobs because of the large minimum wage increase after their unemployment insurance runs out?
A Firing Line Debate: Resolved: That Political Correctness Is a Menace and a Bore
23 Dec 2017 Leave a comment
in liberalism, politics - USA Tags: political correctness
There are no externalities from hosting the America’s Cup because externalities arise from incomplete property rights
23 Dec 2017 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, politics - New Zealand, rentseeking, sports economics
Externalities arise out of incomplete property rights. The only externalities that arise from an airport expansion proposed in Wellington is from noise.
There are no externalities from building sports stadiums or hosting mega sports events because all of the effects are transacted through the market. No inputs are used without the permission of the owner, nothing is produced that is not charged for by the venue or event organisers.
As for the use of benefit cost analysis to strengthen the claim for a government subsidy, you use cost benefit analysis when you are too stupid to charge for the good or service such as a road or you are evaluating regulations because they deal with nonmarket effects, effects that are not mediated through the market process.
Sports stadiums and mega sports events should pass the usual market test. Is it profitable for the entrepreneurs backing the project when they are using their own money.
Bryan Caplan on why the minimum wage increase must kill jobs
22 Dec 2017 Leave a comment
1. The literature on the effect of low-skilled immigration on native wages. A strong consensus finds that large increases in low-skilled immigration have little effect on low-skilled native wages. David Card himself is a major contributor here, most famously for his study of the Mariel boatlift. These results imply a highly elastic demand curve for low-skilled labor, which in turn implies a large disemployment effect of the minimum wage.
This consensus among immigration researchers is so strong that George Borjas titled his dissenting paper “The Labor Demand Curve Is Downward Sloping.” If this were a paper on the minimum wage, readers would assume Borjas was arguing that the labor demand curve is downward-sloping rather than vertical. Since he’s writing about immigration, however, he’s actually claiming the labor demand curve is downward-sloping rather than horizontal!
2. The literature on the effect of European labor market regulation. Most economists who study European labor markets admit that strict labor market regulations are an important cause of high long-term unemployment. When I ask random European economists, they tell me, “The economics is clear; the problem is politics,” meaning that European governments are afraid to embrace the deregulation they know they need to restore full employment. To be fair, high minimum wages are only one facet of European labor market regulation. But if you find that one kind of regulation that raises labor costs reduces employment, the reasonable inference to draw is that any regulation that raises labor costs has similar effects – including, of course, the minimum wage.
3. The literature on the effects of price controls in general. There are vast empirical literatures studying the effects of price controls of housing (rent control), agriculture (price supports), energy (oil and gas price controls), banking (Regulation Q) etc. Each of these literatures bolsters the textbook story about the effect of price controls – and therefore ipso facto bolsters the textbook story about the effect of price controls in the labor market.
If you object, “Evidence on rent control is only relevant for housing markets, not labor markets,” I’ll retort, “In that case, evidence on the minimum wage in New Jersey and Pennsylvania in the 1990s is only relevant for those two states during that decade.” My point: If you can’t generalize empirical results from one market to another, you can’t generalize empirical results from one state to another, or one era to another. And if that’s what you think, empirical work is a waste of time.
4. The literature on Keynesian macroeconomics. If you’re even mildly Keynesian, you know that downward nominal wage rigidity occasionally leads to lots of involuntary unemployment. If, like most Keynesians, you think that your view is backed by overwhelming empirical evidence, I have a challenge for you: Explain why market-driven downward nominal wage rigidity leads to unemployment without implying that a government-imposed minimum wage leads to unemployment. The challenge is tough because the whole point of the minimum wage is to intensify what Keynesians correctly see as the fundamental cause of unemployment: The failure of nominal wages to fall until the market clears.
From http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2013/03/the_vice_of_sel.html
The new corporate tax landscape
19 Dec 2017 Leave a comment
in fiscal policy, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, public economics Tags: company tax
West Wing 2:4 – Gun Control
18 Dec 2017 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, politics - USA, television Tags: gun control, West Wing
Why did @SenSanders lie about the Canadian healthcare system?
17 Dec 2017 Leave a comment
in health economics, politics - USA
Canadians report the longest waits of patients in 11 countries.
- 1 out of 5 Canadians reported waiting 7 or more days to see a family doctor the last time they needed medical attention.
- 1 out of 3 Canadians reported waiting 4 or more hours the last time they went to the emergency department.
- 1 of out 2 Canadians reported waiting 4 or more weeks to see a specialist.
Co-op founder expains impact of net neutrality on a small ISP
17 Dec 2017 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of media and culture, economics of regulation, industrial organisation, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, survivor principle Tags: net neutrality, The fatal conceit, The pretence to knowledge, unintended consequences
New Zealand sexes up the numbers on homelessness
16 Dec 2017 Leave a comment
in politics - New Zealand, poverty and inequality, urban economics
Source: OECD Affordable Housing Database – http://oe.cd/ahd OECD – Social Policy Division – Directorate of Employment, Labour and Social Affairs Last updated on 24/07/2017 HC3.1 HOMELESS POPULATION
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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