An analysis of the impact of raising the minimum wage in Seattle on job availability and income for low-wage workers in the city cites research done in 2014 by Arindrajit Dube, economics. Dube suggests that the minimum wage can safely be set at the median hourly pay for a full-time worker without causing job losses. In a new paper he has co-authored, researchers say the minimum wage can be set a little higher than the median wage without having large negative impacts on employment. (Slate, 2/25/19)
Month: February 2019
A columnist writing that teachers, EMTs, nurses, active-duty military and law enforcement personnel deserve a tax credit because they work toward the collective good in society and deserve recognition and some financial help, includes a comment from Gerald C. Friedman, economics. Friedman says if such a tax credit were put into place, there would be a “spillover effect” when employers in other industries raise wages to retain workers. In addition, he says, “There would be some economic stimulus from more money going to lower-wage earners.” (Florida Today, 2/18/19)
Economics Robert Pollin is quoted in an interest Bloomberg article about financing opportunities/options for a green new deal. Wall Street Is More Than Willing to Fund the Green New Deal. Investing in the environment is already a $12 trillion market. Now markets are just looking for guidance from Congress. (Bloomberg 2/14/19).
Ina Ganguli, economics, is interviewed on the local public affairs television show Connecting Point about a new study on how women network and land leadership roles. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that women used both a wide network of personal contacts, and in addition, they depended on a close inner circle of other women who could offer support and gender-specific job advice. (WGBY-TV 57, 2/11/19)
M.V. Lee Badgett, economics and public policy, says the decline in the number of same-sex marriages in New Hampshire, Vermont and to a lesser degree in Massachusetts, may be due to an easing of pent-up demand now that federal law allows it and people don’t have to come to New England states to get legally married. She says, however, that is something of a guess because same-sex marriage hasn’t been around long enough to reveal long-term trends. (Concord Monitor [N.H.], 2/9/19)
Research conducted by Arindrajit Dube, economics, shows that raising the minimum wage significantly reduced the number of families living in poverty. In a 2018 paper, Dube concluded that a $12 per hour minimum wage in 2017 would have lifted 6.2 million people out of poverty. (Vox, 2/8/19)
A column that clams Amazon, currently the most valuable company in the U.S., “is the best argument against capitalism,” quotes Richard Wolff, professor emeritus of economics, who says hundreds of thousands of Amazon employees are not paid their fair share of the company’s profits. (Pacific Standard, 2/7/19)
Richard Wolff, economics, says that in tonight’s State of the Union address President Donald Trump will use nationalism to disguise his program to cut corporate taxes and deregulate businesses. (Sputnik, 2/5/19)
In an opinion column, Gerald Friedman, economics, argues that in a recent column, Richard Fein failed to consult relevant documentation to answer his questions about the costs of Medicare-for-all. Friedman says that Fein also failed to address the central issue, which is not whether the nation can afford a better and cheaper healthcare system but whether it can continue to pay for the current inefficient system. (Daily Hampshire Gazette, 2/4/19)