In a recent speech reprinted in the Wall Street Journal, University of Pennsylvania law school professor Amy Wax discusses the importance of “logic, evidence, facts and substantive arguments” when debating public policy: The proper response [to opposing opinions is] to engage in reasoned debate—to attempt to explain, using logic, evidence, facts and substantive arguments, why those opinions are wrong. This kind of civil discourse is obviously important at law schools ... Read More
A Fascinating Proposal From AEI to Fund Family Leave
AEI’s Andrew Biggs offers a fascinating proposal to fund family leave that avoids reducing women’s wages. He writes: "The U.S. is the only industrialized nation without a law guaranteeing workers paid parental leave. The idea has broad public support, but how to pay for it? One idea is to mandate that employers fund it, but economists find employers offset the cost by reducing wages for female employees." "Our proposal is simple: Offer new parents the opportunity to ... Read More
New Study Refutes Piketty-Saez Conclusions on Income Inequality
New research from economists at the Treasury and Joint Committee on Taxation, (refereed by Emmanuel Saez and Richard Burkhauser) which accounts for government transfers, non-taxed income, taxes, other sources of pass-through income, and changes in the number of taxpayers per tax unit, finds income inequality has grown much less since 1960 than Piketty and Saez claim. The study finds: “Our measure of consistent market income [pretax, pre-government transfers] indicates ... Read More
Ray Dalio Includes “The Upside of Inequality” On His Reading List
Ray Dalio tells Tim Ferriss in a recent interview that Ed Conard’s new book “The Upside of Inequality,” is on his current reading list. Listen to the full interview here. ... Read More
Another Reason for Slow Productivity Growth: Employment Is Shifting to Sectors with Lower Productivity
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Andy Puzder Reviews The Upside of Inequality
"Edward Conard’s The Upside of Inequality is one of those rare books. Conard refreshingly places the credit for economic prosperity where it belongs: On the willingness of innovators, entrepreneurs and investors to assume risk and on the availability of properly trained talent to turn risk into success..." Andy Puzder RealClearPolitics April 27, 2017 It’s a rare pleasure when a book on economic theory discusses how our economy actually works. Edward ... Read More
The American Interest Reviews The Upside of Inequality
“In stark contrast to The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution, Edward Conard’s The Upside of Inequality...challenges the prevailing assumptions that animate progressive interpretations of inequality.Reading Sitaraman and Conard side-by-side... Conard’s reading of the evidence...is more plausible..." Neil Gilbert The American Interest March 20, 2017 Economic inequality is widely cited as the seedbed of social ills, sprouting plutocracy and corruption, stunting ... Read More
