The price of palm oil has increased (WSJ, Jan. 2021). Also note that earlier farmers responded to lower prices by fertilizing less, thereby reducing the quantity supplied.
Edward Millner's blog. It contains links to articles for students taking Principles of Microeconomics and Managerial Economics. It also contains links to articles about politics. The opinions here are mine. No one at VCU reviews or approves what I post.
Friday, January 29, 2021
Tuesday, January 26, 2021
A nice review of the literature on the effect of minimum wage
David Neumark and Peter Shirley conclude that:
"(i) there is a clear preponderance of negative estimates in the literature;
"(ii) this evidence is stronger for teens and young adults as well as the less-educated;
"(iii) the evidence from studies of directly-affected workers points even more strongly to negative employment effects; and
"(iv) the evidence from studies of low-wage industries is less one-sided" (HT Tyler Cowen, Jan. 2021).
Thursday, January 21, 2021
On the proposal to increase the Federal minimum wage to $15
"These statistics show that $15 is a very high wage floor. For employers to keep all their workers would require raising the wages of a huge share of the national workforce. But the number of workers affected would be so large that this wouldn’t happen. Instead, the number of jobs in the low-wage workforce would shrink.
"The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office confirms this basic intuition, estimating that joblessness would increase by 1.3 million if the national hourly wage floor were hiked to $15 [TC: and that is pre-pandemic]. The CBO also concluded that this policy would reduce business income, raise consumer prices and reduce gross domestic product."