So what’s new? There is now a very interesting survey in the EconJournalWatch, which asks a set of questions to the 659 economists (some of them top researchers whom I always admired and admire- not necessarily for their views in this context, though) who signed the formal statement released by the EPI, concerning a raise of the federal minimum wage. By reading the opinions there I cannot but agree with Tyler Cowen’s conclusion on MR. Put simply, I think this is beyond economic reasoning and has much more to do with political choices. Moreover one answer I would have really liked to read, more than anybody else’s reaction, in fact- but he does not seem to have completed the survey- is Larry Katz’s. In fact only 95 individuals, out of the 659 who signed the ‘raise the minimum wage’ statement in the first place, completed this questionnaire. A minority of a minority, really (Becker pointed out this first).
Update: The USA Senate has just bloked the raise of the minimum wage, asking for further small business tax break relief. This is just normal, though unfortunately here it is mostly on political lines, otherwise you would also expect many of the Democrats to think (and you would find many weirdos in the Republican side as well). Think, yes, because economically most often they do not make much sense (such as this Edward Kennedy senator). More on yahoo news, don’t know how much it’ll stay there; yahoo is one of those immature news channel that does not keep the same internet addresses over time, happened to me before…
