We provide the first direct estimates of the effects of minimum wages on low-wage workers in families at different points of the distribution of income-to-needs, using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation, which oversamples low-income families. We find adverse – rather than beneficial – effects of minimum wages on the employment, hours,…
Do Minimum Wages Help Worker in Poor and Low-Income Families?
Do Minimum Wages Help Worker in Poor and Low-Income Families?
25 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in econometerics, economics of regulation, labour economics, minimum wage, poverty and inequality
Whiskey taxes, revenue and voting by members of Congress in history
25 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, history of economic thought, Public Choice, public economics
See Revenue over reason: A case for home distilling by Ben Semark of the Competitive Enterprise Institute. After an excerpt from Semark’s article, I discuss how this relates to voting by congressmen on bills during the Federalist period, the subject of my Ph. D. dissertation.Excerpt from Semark:”Creating home-brewed spirits was not a niche or commercial practice…
Whiskey taxes, revenue and voting by members of Congress in history
Part II: Demographics + Entitlements = Europe’s Doom
25 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in economic growth, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, population economics, public economics Tags: ageing society, European Union, population bust
The world’s most under-appreciated problem is demographic decline mixed with tax-and-transfer entitlement programs. Those two factors, when combined, are a massive problem. All of which is explained in my series on demographic change and fiscal crisis (see here, here, here, here, and here). Today, let’s focus on the problem in Europe, building on what I […]
Part II: Demographics + Entitlements = Europe’s Doom
Assassination Sing-a-Long: Hasan Piker Mocks the Murdered Charlie Kirk to Cheering Crowd
24 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA
We have seen protesters on the left around the country mocking the assassination of Charlie Kirk, even reenacting his murder.…
Assassination Sing-a-Long: Hasan Piker Mocks the Murdered Charlie Kirk to Cheering Crowd
College-educated women have maintained stable marriage rates by partnering with high-earning non-college men, shrinking the pool of economically viable partners available to non-college women
24 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, econometerics, economics of love and marriage, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, occupational choice, population economics, poverty and inequality
See Gender Disparities in College Enrollment and Marriage Patterns by Clara Chambers, Benjamin Goldman & Joseph Winkelmann.”Over the past half-century, the gender composition of American college campuses has shifted from predominantly male to predominantly female. Today, 1.6 million more women than men attend four-year colleges in the US. Over the same time period, the economic status…
College-educated women have maintained stable marriage rates by partnering with high-earning non-college men, shrinking the pool of economically viable partners available to non-college women
Bill Maher promotes the resumption of workplace romances
23 Aug 2026 1 Comment
in television, TV shows
In his “New rule” comedy-and-news/opinion segment of Real Time, Bill Maher argues that there’s been too much disapproveal of romances in the workplace. (He mentions the draconian rule proposed by AOC, which demonizes romances between people in Congress and any staffer, no matter who they work for, even though Congresspeople are already prohibited from dating…
Bill Maher promotes the resumption of workplace romances
The all powerful TOP Board
23 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in politics - New Zealand Tags: 2026 general election
Pleased to see at least one journalist asking tough questions of TOP. It is alarming that the party leader doers;t even know her own party’s rules, especially one as important as the board being able to over-rule the caucus. I guess this is what you get when a party leader is not a long-standing member,…
The all powerful TOP Board
West Point Professor Challenges Ban on “Un-American, Divisive…Radical, Extremist, and Irrational Theories.”
23 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of education, economics of regulation, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights Tags: free speech
There is an important lawsuit being litigated in the Southern District of New York over the limits of free speech…
West Point Professor Challenges Ban on “Un-American, Divisive…Radical, Extremist, and Irrational Theories.”
The Fair Share Myth and Other Socialist Fables
22 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: Denmark, Norway, Sweden
Below is my column in the Hill on Mamdani’s “Fair Share Myth” and other fables being spread on the left…
The Fair Share Myth and Other Socialist Fables
Fidel Castro: Human Garbage
22 Aug 2026 1 Comment
in development economics, economic history, growth disasters, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: Cuba, regressive left
I’ve written many columns documenting Cuba’s economic misery. Probably the most-persuasive evidence that socialism has failed in that country is the chart showing how Cuba has fallen behind other (very similar) countries ever since Fidel Castro took over more than six decades ago. Though I’ve always thought the most-damning visual came from the Economist, which […]
Fidel Castro: Human Garbage
Judicial Power, Democratic Accountability, and the Smith Case
22 Aug 2026 1 Comment
in politics - New Zealand Tags: constitutional law
Supreme Court lacks democratic responsibility and accountability: its excesses demand clearer leadership from the legal profession.
Judicial Power, Democratic Accountability, and the Smith Case
The History and Importance of the Austrian Theory of the Market Process …
21 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, economic history, history of economic thought
“The Cascade of Dysfunction That Helped Doom Jason Arday”
21 Aug 2026 1 Comment
in economics of crime, economics of education, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics Tags: British politics, free speech, political correctness, regressive left
An excellent piece today by Jesse Singal in The Dispatch; the whole thing is worth reading, but here are some… The post “The Cascade of Dysfunction That Helped Doom Jason Arday” appeared first on Reason.com.
“The Cascade of Dysfunction That Helped Doom Jason Arday”
The Confucian fertility paradox
21 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in development economics, econometerics, economic history, economics of love and marriage, growth miracles, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, population economics
Total fertility rates in East Asia have fallen to levels without historical precedent, even though the region’s Confucian heritage long placed extraordinary emphasis on family continuity and large families. We argue that this “Confucian Fertility Paradox” dissolves once we separate two strands of the tradition and recognize that modernization affected them very differently. The pro-natal…
The Confucian fertility paradox
The Thing-not the movie.
21 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, war and peace Tags: Cold War
The Thing, also known as The Great Seal Bug, was a passive covert listening device, developed in the Soviet Union and planted in the study of the US Ambassador in Moscow, hidden inside a wooden carving of the Great Seal of the United States. It is called a passive device as it does not have its own power source. […]
The Thing-not the movie.
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