I looked at Deere, Murphy, and Welch, AER May 1995 which is the study
I think Pete was referring to. It's a fine piece on the minimum wage
but not a reply to Card and Krueger in any specific sense.
I don't want to beat this dead horse any longer so let me stipulate
that I am convinced that Card and Kruger are wrong and I think there is
lots of evidence that the minimum wage reduces employment. I maintain,
however, that by the standards of the profession the Card and Krueger
work is of high quality. As a thought experiment, imagine you were on
an NSF committe and were presented with a proposal to study the minimum
wage by using a natural experiment, surveying fast food restaurants etc.
- i.e. everything which Card and Kruger did. I believe that just about
everyone would have applauded the proposal as original, clever, and
worthy of support. Consistency requires that we not abandon this
perspective when the conclusion turns out to be something we don't agree
with (isn't changing priors the point of doing research?)
Alex
--
Dr. Alexander Tabarrok
Vice President and Director of Research
The Independent Institute
100 Swan Way
Oakland, CA, 94621-1428
Tel. 510-632-1366, FAX: 510-568-6040
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
