Econamici blog

The Black-White Wage Gap: How Inequality and Monopoly Amplify Racial Discrimination

Black men's wages as a percent of White increased rapidly after World War II, only to level off at a bit over 55% after the 1970s. That's a paradox: If racism causes the Black-White wage gap, how come the gap closed dramatically while Jim Crow laws remained in effect, and
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Interview About Monopoly with Paul Jay on The Analysis

To reduce inequality, monopolies in finance and other economic sectors should be broken up or made public
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Review of “Liberty from All Masters,” by Barry C. Lynn

Fifty years ago, my husband and I volunteered to work for Ralph Nader. Unwittingly we helped enable the monopolists who rule America today.
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Review of Break ‘Em Up by Zephyr Teachout

It's tough being a chicken farmer. Three processors, Tyson, Pilgrim’s Pride, and Perdue, have divvied up the American chicken market between them. Chicken farmers must sell to the one who “owns” their geographical area. That processor dictates where they get their chicks, how they build their chicken houses, what feed
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The Democrats Confront Monopoly

At a June 2016 event organized by Barry Lynn of the Open Markets Institute, Elizabeth Warren delivered a stunning speech on the damage of monopoly and the importance of reviving antitrust. Shortly afterwards, I attended a New York presentation by Alan Blinder, Hillary Clinton’s economic policy advisor. He focused on
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Beauty and Profit: The Evolution of Beauty (2017) by Richard O. Prum

In 1860 Charles Darwin wrote to a colleague: "The sight of a feather in a peacock's tail...makes me sick!" What was Darwin's problem? He had just published On the Origin of Species, laying out his theory of evolution by natural selection. Yet he worried about seemingly maladaptive features of living
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Dead Empires: How China May Overtake the U.S.

“The earth is the tomb of dead empires, no less than of dead men.” Thus wrote the American economist and journalist Henry George in his 1879 worldwide bestseller, Progress and Poverty. Adam Smith had identified cooperation and specialization—“the division of labor”—as the forces that generated economic growth and prosperity. George
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The Mouse That Wouldn’t Die: How a Lack of Public Funding Holds Back a Promising Cancer Treatment

Spring 1999. “Professor Cui, this mouse didn’t get cancer. Should I get rid of him?” “There must have been a mistake,” said Cui, “Inject him again.” Two weeks later, still no cancer. “Try again with a higher dose!” Still no cancer. No cancer even at a million times the lethal
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Increasing the Minimum Wage Can Actually Create Jobs–If It’s Enforced

Back when I studied economics, we "proved" in class that a minimum wage causes unemployment. But that proof depends on assuming a perfectly competitive market. Big low-wage employers like Wal-Mart have substantial market power; they can deliberately under-staff operations to force down wages. In that case, a minimum wage increase
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Taxing Carbon is Like Taxing Diamonds

A carbon tax would operate much like a diamond tax, for reasons both of demand and supply.
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