In a new study by Yelowitz “Santa Fe’s Wage Ordinance and the Labor Market,” dated September 23, 2005 (published by the Employment Policies Institute) Yelowitz claims to have demonstrated that the Santa Fe living wage ordinance is responsible for significant, negative consequences for...

This paper first examines the question “what is a living wage” and provides a range of specific dollar amounts derived a conceptual assessment of the term. I then provide a series of cost estimates of living wage laws in various cities. Based on these cost estimates, I examine a set of...

This paper presents new non-linear regression estimates of the relationship between inflation and economic growth for 80 countries over the period 1961 – 2000. We perform tests using the full sample of countries as well as sub-samples consisting of OECD countries, middle-income countries, and...

The war in Iraq is a strategic and moral disaster. But one issue relating to the war that hasn’t been addressed in depth is its impact on the U.S. economy. In the first of a series of research papers that will consider this issue, Robert Pollin and Heidi Garrett-Peltier consider the impact of...

In John King, ed., The Edward Elgar Companion to Post-Keynesian Economics

In February 2002, New Orleans endorsed with a 63 percent majority a ballot initiative to establish a citywide minimum wage one dollar above the federal minimum. We surveyed New Orleans businesses in 1999 to estimate this proposal’s costs. We present the main results from this survey. We then...

This paper examines the viability of security transaction excise taxes (STETs) as one policy tool for promoting a more stable financial environment, specifically with respect to the U.S. economy. Contrary to a large recent critical literature, we show that a STET can be designed without creating...