Others on the Minimum Wage

22 Feb 2013

Others on the Minimum Wage

Daniel Kuehn, David R. Henderson, Economics 5 Comments

==> David R. Henderson writes a neat summary and critique of the Card & Krueger work. (Daniel Kuehn doesn’t get it.) In the comments, Bill Woolsey leaves a fantastic summary of the various issues.

==> Don Boudreaux says that if we can raise employment costs by 24% with no dire effect on employment, would it also work if we reduced productivity by 24% (by mandating 15-minute breaks every hour)? (Daniel Kuehn doesn’t like it.)

5 Responses to “Others on the Minimum Wage”

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Daniel Kuehn says:
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It was the one point on trusting the price data with C&K that was odd. I get the price argument (I’m trusting it’s correct – I don’t know the right way to think about how prices filter through in a monopsony). But again you are linking to a post where I was favorably recommending and agreeing with David’s post and acting like I’m disagreeing (just like initially you had linked to me acting like I was offering praise for Obama’s minimum wage proposal when I wasn’t.

How are you ever going to write a convincing Krugman Kontradiction if you can’t keep my relatively lucid prose straight! 🙂

You are right on Boudreaux. I do not see how all these alternative scenarios he’s demonstrating show anything. I wish he would draw it out because I’m worried I’m thinking about it in the wrong way.
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  Major_Freedom says:
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  Seriously, why are the words “monopsony” and “low skilled labor market” even being used in the same sentence?
  
  Virtually EVERY employer could use cheap unskilled labor to do something, as long as the price is low enough.
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Nick Rowe says:
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For a survey of Canadian empirical work, here’s Stephen Gordon: http://www2.macleans.ca/2013/02/19/want-to-help-the-poor-dont-waste-your-time-with-the-minimum-wage/

Canadian studies tend to find bigger reductions in employment than US studies. Maybe because we’ve got a better data set with more variation across provinces so we get more accurate estimates. Or maybe because our minimum wages tend to be higher, so are more binding.
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Tel says:
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if we can raise employment costs by 24% with no dire effect on employment, would it also work if we reduced productivity by 24% (by mandating 15-minute breaks every hour)?

Sorry I just find it spooky that random people start talking about the same thing at the same time. Almost like there’s some global communication network, and we are all linked up to it.

http://www.black-and-right.com/2013/02/21/bitch-slap-of-the-day-12/

I have visited that factory a couple of times. The French workforce gets paid high wages but works only three hours. They get one hour for breaks and lunch, talk for three, and work for three. I told this to the French union workers to their faces. They told me that’s the French way!
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  Kevin L says:
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  Hence, why we buy more things from Asia than France.