Writing at Division of Labour, Larry White has more to say about the letter that supposedly shows so many economists in favor of increasing the minimum wage:
When are 650 economists fewer than meets the eye?
–Lawrence H. White
The Employment Policy Institute released an ?economists? statement? earlier this month supporting an increase in the federal minimum wage to $7.25 per hour. Headline: ?Hundreds of Economists Say: Raise the Minimum Wage?. The wishful content of the statement has been critically scrutinized by other econo-bloggers.
Given the long-standing free-market orientation of the UCLA economics department (my graduate alma mater), I was surprised to see that six signatories listed a UCLA affiliation. Wow, have the economists at UCLA changed that much? (I had dinner with Harold Mulherin last night, and he hasn?t abandoned the UCLA way of thinking.) A little Googling reveals that there?s less here than meets the eye. None of the six UCLA ?economists? listed teaches in the economics department. Three are in Geography or Urban Planning (Paul Ong, Allen J. Scott, Michael Storper; Scott and Storper have Geography and not Economics Ph.Ds), two are professors of management in the Graduate School of Management (Sanford M. Jacoby, Daniel J. B. Mitchell), and one (Susan L. Ettner) is in the Med School.
It makes me wonder how many of the 650 “economists” actually teach in economics departments.
