What is the Salisbury convention, and have the Lords broken it over Brexit?
12 Jun 2018 Leave a comment
The European Union (Withdrawal) Bill returns to the Commons today for consideration of the numerous amendments made during its eventful passage though the Lords. Some commentators have accused the Lords of exceeding their constitutional authority, with the Salisbury convention being cited in defence of this position. David Beamish discusses how the convention operates and argues that the Lords have not breached it so far.
The European Union (Withdrawal) Bill has prompted much discussion of the role of the House of Lords in passing legislation, including references such as this to the Salisbury convention:
‘ …the Lords has effectively torn up the Salisbury convention: that manifesto promises by the governing party should not be blocked by an unrepresentative upper house’.
That passage, from an article in The Times by Matt Ridley, who sits in parliament as an elected hereditary peer, relates to the amendments made by the Lords to the…
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Ignorant Survey from Chicago-Booth?
09 Jun 2018 Leave a comment
By Mario Rizzo
The Chicago-Booth IMG Forum asks their favorite economists two questions. Let us examine them.
Question A:
Raising the federal minimum wage to $9 per hour would make it noticeably harder for low-skilled workers to find employment.
Why was the word “noticeably” added to the question rather than some specific quantitative amount? In other words, the question could have been phrased: “Would it increase unemployment among low-skilled works by approximately 5 percentage points or less?” I realize that economists would get nervous about mentioning a specific number. But (1) That would reveal the true difficulties in economics of making quantitative predictions and hence tradeoffs; (2) It would take the subjectivity out of the word “noticeable.” Noticeable for whom, and by what standard? Noticeable to the public or to the policy maker or to the economist or to the low skilled workers or to union members?
Question…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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