SI
SI
discoversearch

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor.  We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community.  If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.
Pastimes : Discussion Thread
 Public ReplyPrvt ReplyMark as Last ReadFilePrevious 10Next 10PreviousNext  
From: TimF3/9/2010 4:58:12 PM
  Read Replies (1) of 3816
 
Minimum Wages and the Economic Way of Thinking

Steve Horwitz offers a short discussion of the changing employment situation. There are some interesting comments. I've written a lot about the minimum wage, and I have a draft of an article I'm going to finish at some point making the case for why economists care so much about it even though the employment and efficiency effects might be relatively small. In short, the debate over the minimum wage is probably the most vivid example of the conflict between the economic and the anti-economic way of thinking--or between truth and truthiness.

A few months ago, Price Fishback made extensive comments on my survey of Southern economic history (which I'm now revising) and kindly directed me to his 1998 Journal of Economic Literature survey paper on the operation of American labor markets at the beginning of the twentieth century. It's definitely going on my syllabus the next time I teach economic history, and it might even go on my intro syllabus. There are a couple of key takeaway points: markets usually worked the way we would expect them to, company towns/sharecropping/company unions were rational responses to transaction costs rather than purely exploitative arrangements, safety regulations often codified existing practices, and people could (and did) use the state to satisfy their tastes for discrimination (cf. Jennifer Roback's papers on Jim Crow labor law and segregated streetcars).

divisionoflabour.com
Report TOU ViolationShare This Post
 Public ReplyPrvt ReplyMark as Last ReadFilePrevious 10Next 10PreviousNext  

HomeMailHotSubjectMarksPeopleMarksKeepersSettings
Terms Of UseContact UsCopyright/IP PolicyPrivacy PolicyAbout UsFAQAdvertise on SI
© 2025 Knight Sac Media.  Data provided by Twelve Data, Alpha Vantage, and CityFALCON News