By significantly reducing the available stock of job opportunities at the bottom end of the career ladder, a higher minimum wage increases the likelihood that unemployed teens will seek income elsewhere. A 2013 study by economists at Boston College analyzed increases in state and federal minimum-wage levels between 1997 and 2010. It found that low-skill workers affected by minimum-wage hikes were more likely to lose their jobs, become idle and commit crime. The authors warn that their results “point to the dangers both to the individual and to society from policies that restrict the already limited employment options of this group.”
David Bier looks into why unemployment is low when immigration rates are high.
My former student Alex Nowrasteh notes that Trump opposes also legal immigration.
My Mercatus Center colleague Dan Griswold offers a partial list of Donald Trump’s many misunderstandings of trade. Here’s Dan’s opening paragraph:
Mr. Trump should visit modern American factories where Americans are making more stuff than ever — jet engines, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, machinery, appliances, and millions of cars. Americans produced a record $2.4 trillion in manufacturing value added in 2014.
Speaking of misunderstandings about trade, back in June Scott Lincicome debunked many of the myths about TPA and TPP.
Richard Rahn documents some local tyranny.
Here’s Jason Brennan on the ethics and rationality of voting.
