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Economic Freedom and Economic Privilege
Last week, the Wall Street Journal and the Heritage Foundation released their annual Index of Economic Freedom by Terry Miller, Kim Holmes, and Edwin Feulner. I was delighted to contribute a chapter on...
View ArticleSeparation between art and state
In Utah, the Sutherland Institute is leading an effort to stop state support for the Sundance Film Festival. On the organization’s blog Derek Monson writes: Given the amount of sexual promiscuity that...
View ArticleHappy Tax Freedom Day
Today, the Tax Foundation notes that Americans have worked enough to pay off their 2013 taxes, leaving the rest of the year’s earnings available for private consumption and investment: Tax Freedom Day...
View ArticleIs an economically freer society a more tolerant society?
Last week was a difficult one. It’s not clear what motivated the heinous acts in Boston but it seems safe to say that intolerance played some role. New research published by Niclas Berggrenn and...
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Why are there no libertarian countries?
In a recent article in Salon, Michael Lind posed a question: Why are there no libertarian countries? If libertarians are correct in claiming that they understand how best to organize a modern society,...
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Does economic freedom matter among wealthy countries?
In response to my last post, alert Neighborhood Effects reader Shane Phillips writes: Are there charts like these that just compare the nations in the top quintile? It’s good to know that economic...
View ArticleRhode Island to unionize daycare workers
Last week, the Rhode Island legislature passed a law to permit daycare workers who receive any subsidies from the state to either form a union, or join an existing union such as the SEIU. While they...
View ArticleBurden of DC’s Wal-Mart Minimum Wage would be Borne by City’s Poor
Plans to bring six Wal-Marts to the District of Columbia may fall through over city requirements for the big box store to pay an hourly wage of $12.50, more than a 50-percent increase over the...
View ArticleNew resource: Mercatus Center’s 2013 State and Local Policy Guide
Are you interested in the practical policy applications of the kinds of research the State and Local Policy Project is producing? For an accessible and very useful review have a look at the inaugural...
View ArticleDoes the minimum wage increase unemployment? Ask Willie Lyons.
President Obama recently claimed: [T]here’s no solid evidence that a higher minimum wage costs jobs, and research shows it raises incomes for low-wage workers and boosts short-term economic growth....
View ArticleWhen new ideas meet old regulatory solutions
With the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission recently issuing cease-and-desist letters to ride-share services Lyft and Uber, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto invoked the Age of Reptiles to describe the...
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Berkeley, CA and the $15 – oops – $19 living wage
Berkeley, CA’s labor commission – in what should be an unsurprising move at this point in Berkeley’s history – has proposed raising the city’s minimum wage to an astounding $19 per hour by 2020! The...
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Economic freedom matters at the local level too
Since 1996 the Fraser Institute has published an annual economic freedom of the world index that ranks countries according to their level of economic freedom. They also publish an economic freedom of...
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More competition can lead to less inequality
Wealth inequality in the United States and many European countries, especially between the richest and the rest, has been a popular topic since Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century was...
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Economic Freedom, Growth, and What Might Have Been
Economists are obsessed with growth. And for good reason. Greater wealth doesn’t just buy us nicer vacations and fancier gadgets. It also buys longer life spans, better nutrition, and lower infant...
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New York’s Buffalo Billion initiative has been underwhelming
New York’s Buffalo Billion plan has come under fire amidst an ongoing corruption probe looking into whether some contracts were inappropriately awarded to political donors. The investigation has led to...
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More labor market freedom means more labor force participation
The U.S. labor force participation (LFP) rate has yet to bounce back to its pre-recession level. Some of the decline is due to retiring baby-boomers but even the prime-age LFP rate, which only counts...
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Economic policies and institutions matter
Economists often talk about the important role institutions and policies play in generating economic growth. A new paper that examines the role of urban governance and city-level productivity provides...
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Why Do We Get So Much Regulation?
Over the past 60 or 70 years, levels of regulation in the United States have been on the rise by almost any measure. As evidence, in the year 1950 there were only 9,745 pages in the US Code of Federal...
View ArticleThe unseen costs of Amazon’s HQ2 Site Selection
Earlier this year Amazon narrowed down the list of potential cities to site its second headquarters. Applicants are now waiting out the selection process. It’s unclear when Amazon will make its choice,...
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