Paul Walker • Mar 24, 2015 •
I came across a bit of the history of the minimum wage that I didn't know today. A 2005 article by Thomas C. Leonard in the Journal of Economic Perspectives (Vol. 19 No. 4 Fall 2005) discusses Eugenics and Economics in the Progressive Era. Leonard opens the article by noting,American economics transformed itself during the Progressive Era. Read More
Paul Walker • Jan 14, 2015 •
The seemingly never ending debate on the effects of the minimum wage continues with a new NBER working paper out on The Minimum Wage and the Great Recession: Evidence of Effects on the Employment and Income Trajectories of Low-Skilled Workers by Jeffre... Read More
Paul Walker • Jan 08, 2015 •
This is an important question since one good reason for supporting having a minimum wage would be if it is an effective antipoverty policy measure. Such a belief would rely on two assumptions: first, raising the minimum wage will increase the incomes of poor families; and second, the minimum wage imposes little or no public or social costs.The policy debate … Read More
Paul Walker • Feb 10, 2014 •
Recently Eric Crampton at Offsetting Behaviour wrote,I suppose it's also relevant that Obama wants a substantial hike to the US minimum wage. A dark side of me wants him to do it, just so we can get some clean estimates of just how bad the disemployment effects would be.Some people would claim that the disemployment effects … Read More
Paul Walker • Sep 11, 2013 •
In the U.S. the recent proposal by President Obama to raise the federal minimum wage has brought the minimum wage debate back to life. Not that it really left the limelight in the U.S., or anywhere else around the world. A new column at VoxEU.org presents new research suggesting minimum-wage policies may not cause an immediate … Read More
Paul Walker • Feb 25, 2013 •
The Gunderson report referred to in the previous posting on the effects of the minimum wage in Canada also has a short section on the effects in the U.K. The interesting point about the U.K. experience is that British studies of the effect of minimum ... Read More
Paul Walker • Feb 25, 2013 •
What we know about the effects of the minimum wage are largely based on work from the USA. But there is evidence from other countries including Canada. This 2005 report prepared for the Federal Labour Standards Review Commission by Morley Gunderson - C... Read More