Quotation of the Day…

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… is from page 117 of Armen Alchian’s and William Allen’s Universal Economics (2018; Jerry Jordan, ed.); this volume is an updated version of Alchian’s and Allen’s magnificent earlier textbook, University Economics:

When wages of labor are raised – say, by a legislated increase in the minimum wage – the first law of demand indicates that less labor will be demanded. But often the reductions in employment occur only many months later after the producer has been able to substitute equipment that uses less labor. By that time, observers forget that the reduction is a response to higher labor costs. With the passage of time, these changes become more difficult to measure because so many other things change.

DBx: Keep this indisputably accurate observation in mind when you next encounter an empirical study that is claimed to “refute” the ECON 101 proposition that increases in the minimum wage reduce the employment options available to low-skilled workers.