Working paper of perhaps my fav project, w/ @joshbudlender.bsky.social We know min wages can improve efficiency statically by reducing markdowns under monopsony. We show such worker benefits erode as firms' productivity rises, b/c some firms claw back markdowns rather than share benefits.

Josh Budlender@joshbudlender.bsky.social · 9mo ago

🚨New Working Paper!🚨 @ihsaanbassier.bsky.social & I start with simple stylised fact: lower productivity firms pay ~minimum wage, even as productivity increases. What does this mean for rent sharing/passthrough? Employment? Profits? Monopsony model + 🇿🇦 admin data = striking conclusions!

Colonial extraction and unequal exchange have shaped two centuries of North-South inequality. A thread on the new study written with @gatonievas.bsky.social [A thread 1/8🧵]

World Inequality Lab@wid.world · last yr.

🚨Global economic relations have long been defined by imbalances and unequal power, not by self-correcting market forces, NEW STUDY finds. @thomaspiketty.bsky.social & @gatonievas.bsky.social call for structural reforms to the international monetary and exchange system. wid.world/news-article...

Americans favor labor unions over big business now more than ever, analysis of new data @epi.org from me & Adam Reich of Columbia Labor Lab. In data back 60 years, Americans' sentiments are both warmer toward unions & cooler towards big business than ever before. www.epi.org/blog/america...

We ask: Why do South African women earn less than men? ~Half the gap is due to women "sorting" into lower-paying firms, beginning in their late 20s. New in JDE w/ @ihsaanbassier.bsky.social . Conversation piece:

Why are women paid less than men? New research in South Africa shows the company you work for makes the biggest difference

A big part of the explanation for why women are paid less than men is the companies they work for.

theconversation.com

Our paper is now out at the Review of Economics and Statistics, "Vacancy Durations and Wages" A simple paper using annual firm & union pay increases to get ~recruitment elasticities. Unsurprisingly, when firms raise wages they get workers more quickly! direct.mit.edu/rest/article...

One is really astonished and frankly enraged every time these intergovernmental organizations walk into a global south forum to deliver a "country report" with clear "recommendations" that of course have zero clues about anything and yet all the power and arrogance to demand everyone's attention.

Optimist: The cup is half full Pessimist: The cup is half empty Economist: The cup reveals how much the consumers like to drink given his budget constraint.

Churning numbers w/ @ihsaanbassier.bsky.social & @rosaabraham.bsky.social from India's economic census for a project: From the set of non-agri enterprises in India, >98% are informal or micro enterprises (with no hired or hired but < than 10 workers) + they acc for 79% of all workers in the set.

Got a longish read in @phenomenalworld.bsky.social on the budget, Labour's economic strategy and UK political economy. www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/bey...

Beyond Growth | Jo Michell

Can Labour rise to the politics of growth after fourteen years of stagnation?

phenomenalworld.org

After all, 99% of RCTs are information interventions with huge effects, who needs hospitals when we have lectures!

Rafe Meager (they/them)@economeager.bsky.social · 2y ago

someone needs to put this in a development economics lecture

Nice presentation by Imran rasul on race-related research in econ: 2% of publications related to race, pretty flat since 1970 but rising for top 5 journals -- still way below eg sociology at 12%.

Very happy to be International Economic Association's @IEA_economics featured economist for the month of October 2023. In this profile, I reflect on why I do economics, relevance of my work, and how to think about the issue of diversity in the discipline. iea-world.org/Featured%20E...