Bob Murphy

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Even More Thoughts on the Minimum Wage

I am still in a mild state of shock that so many professional economists apparently doubt that demand curves slope downward. I admit upfront that I have not spent more than an hour or so looking through the latest literature reviews on the topic. Nonetheless, I remain unrepentant: I think increasing the price of unskilled […]

Further Thoughts on the Minimum Wage

Daniel Kuehn repeated a statement from an Economix blog post, saying that, “In fact, in 2000 only 46 percent of American Economic Association members agreed with the idea that the minimum wage increases unemployment.” That struck me as inconceivable. I could *possibly* believe that as of 2000, only 46% of AEA members thought the minimum […]

Sweet Cuddly Steve Landsburg

This is the mushiest interview with Steve Landsburg you will ever see. A great part: I like to say that when you’re stuck in traffic on a hot summer night, it’s very easy to remember that the guy in front of you is imposing the costs, and, unfortunately, you also easily forget that the guy […]

Libertarians and Religion: An Airing of Grievances

On Facebook the other day somebody in my news feed had a status that was something like, “I can’t believe how many big name libertarians are religious. Don’t they know in a free market, most churches would be sued for fraud?” What was more intriguing was that a few people that I consider personal friends […]

I Get Empirical on Minimum Wage

So Paul Krugman et al. are telling us that the empirical literature shows that minimum wage laws don’t have a discernible impact on teen unemployment. Yet another right-winger myth flushed down the toilet. I went and looked at the paper Krugman says documents this fact. I was a little concerned because it seemed to be […]

Two Views on Minimum Wage Hikes

(This post is taken from the heavy lifting David R. Henderson performed.) Here’s an economist talking about the textbook view of the minimum wage, and how we should take the (in)famous Card & Krueger results with a grain of salt: So what are the effects of increasing minimum wages? Any Econ 101 student can tell […]