首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Raising the Minimum Wage Reduces Poverty A) One funny part of watching journalists cover the minimum wage debate is that the
Raising the Minimum Wage Reduces Poverty A) One funny part of watching journalists cover the minimum wage debate is that the
admin
2022-07-28
46
问题
Raising the Minimum Wage Reduces Poverty
A) One funny part of watching journalists cover the minimum wage debate is that they often have to try and referee cutting-edge econometric (计量经济学) debates. Some studies, notably those lead by UMass Amherst economist Arin Dube, argue that there are no adverse employment effects from small increases in the minimum wage. Other studies, notably those lead by University of California Irvine economist David Neumark, argue there is an adverse effect. Whatever can we conclude?
B) But instead of diving into that controversy, let’s take a look at where these economists, and all the other researchers investigating the minimum wage, do agree: They all tend to think that raising the minimum wage would reduce poverty. That’s the conclusion of a major new paper by Dube, titled "Minimum Wages and the Distribution of Family Incomes."
C) Let’s first highlight the major results. Dube uses the latest in minimum-wage statistics and finds a negative relationship between the minimum wage and poverty. Specifically, raising the minimum wage 10 percent (say from $7.25 to near $8) would reduce the number of people living in poverty 2.4 percent. (For those who thrive on jargon, the minimum wage has an "elasticity" of -0.24 when it comes to poverty reduction.)
D) Using this as an estimate, raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, as many Democrats are proposing in 2014, would reduce the number of people living in poverty by 4.6 million. It would also boost the incomes of those at the 10th percentile (百分位) by $1,700. That’s a significant increase in the quality of life for our worst off that doesn’t require the government to tax and spend a single additional dollar.
E) And, given that this policy is self-enforcing with virtually no administrative costs while challenging the employer’s market power, it is a powerful complement to the rest of the policies the government uses to boost the living standards of the worst off, including the Earned Income Tax Credit, food stamps, Medicaid, etc.
F) Now, this is normally the part where we’d have to go through the counterarguments, using different data and techniques from different economists, to argue that the minimum wage wouldn’t do this. But this is the fun part: Dube’s paper finds a remarkable consistency across studies here. For instance, in a 2011 paper by minimum-wage opponent David Neumark, raising the minimum wage 10 percent would reduce poverty 2.9 percent (an elasticity of-0.29) for 21-44-year-old family heads or individuals. That’s very similar to what Dube finds. Neumark doesn’t mention this directly in the paper however; Dube is able to back out this conclusion using other variables that are listed.
G) Indeed, Dube digs out the effects of the minimum wage on poverty from 12 different studies in the new wave of literature on the topic that started in the 1990s with David Card and Alan Krueger field-creating research. Of the 54 elasticities that Dube is able to observe in these 12 papers, 48 of them are negative. Only one study has a sizable positive one, a 2005 one by David Neumark, a study that stands out for odd methodology (方法论) (it lacks state and yearly fixed effects, it assumes quantiles (分位数) are moving in certain directions) that isn’t standard in the field or in his subsequent work. (Indeed, it is nothing like Neumark’s standard 2011 study, mentioned above, which finds that the minimum wage reduces poverty.) Including that study, there’s an average elasticity of-0.15 across all the studies; tossing it, there’s one of-0.20 across the 11 studies, similar to what Dube finds.
H) However, these previous studies also have issues which Dube’s new study examines. This paper uses data up through 2012, so there are much more substantial variations to examine between states’ minimum wages compared to earlier studies from the 1990s. Meanwhile there are additional controls added, including those that deal with the business cycle as well as regional effects. The range of controls provide 8 different results, all of which are highlighted.
I) Now, as a general rule with these numbers, you should never observe too far away from the mean—that is, you shouldn’t take the effects of small changes to see what would happen if we, say, increased the minimum wage 500 percent, or to levels that don’t actually exist right now. But the results are promising.
J) Indeed, they are promising on three different measures of poverty. There’s the normal definition of poverty established in the 1960s as a result of how much food costs takes up in your family budget.
K) However, the relationship is both relevant and even stronger for the poverty gap, which is how far people are away from the poverty line, and the squared poverty gap, which is a focus on those with very low incomes. The elasticities here are -0.32 and -0.96 respectively, with the second having an almost one-to-one relationship because the minimum wage reduces the proportions of those with less than one-half the poverty line.
L) What should people take away from this? The first is that there are significant benefits, whatever the costs. If you look at the economist James Tobin in 1996, for instance, he argues that the "minimum wage always had to be recognized as having good income consequences…I thought in this instance those advantages outweighed the small loss of jobs." Since then there’s been substantially more work done arguing that the loss of jobs is smaller or nonexistent, and now we know that the advantages are even better, especially when it comes to boosting incomes of the poorest and reducing extreme poverty.
M) The second is that this isn’t a thing that people proposing an inequality agenda just happened to throw on the table. A higher minimum wage is a substantial response to the challenges of inequality. Opponents of a higher minimum wage focus on the idea that it largely won’t benefit the worst off.
N) A higher minimum wage will lead to a significant boost in incomes for the worst off in the bottom 30th percent of income, while having no impact on the median household.
O) As many economists have argued, the minimum wage "substantially ’held up’ the lower tail of the U.S. earnings distribution" through the late 1970s, but this effect stopped as the real value of the minimum wage fell in subsequent decades. This gives us an empirical (以经验为根据的) handle on how the minimum wage would help deal with both insufficient low-end wages and inequality, and the results are striking.
P) Charles Darwin once wrote, "If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin." One of the key institutions of the modern economy, the minimum wage, could dramatically reduce the misery of the poor. What would it say if we didn’t take advantage of it?
Increase the minimum wage will boost incomes for the worst off in the bottom 30th percent of income without affecting the median household.
选项
答案
N
解析
题干意为,提高最低工资将增加30%底层最贫困人口的收入,而对中等家庭没有影响。根据题干中的关键词the bottom 30th percent和median household可定位到N段。该段提到,提高最低工资将极大地增加最穷困人口中收入排名垫底的那30%的人口的收入,而对中等收入的家庭没有影响。由此可知,题干是对原文的同义转述,故选N。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/Zix7777K
0
大学英语六级
相关试题推荐
自从1978年市场化改革(marketreforms)以来,中国经济已经逐渐从集中的计划经济向市场经济转变,中国经济和社会发展迅速。
A、Over87,000workerswilllosetheirjobsinautocompanies.B、Manypeoplewillhavetosaybye-byetotheirhighsalaries.C、T
A、Theirdifferenteducationalbackgrounds.B、Changingattitudestowardnature.C、Chaostheoryanditsapplications.D、Thecurren
A、Polishingtheirapplicationforms.B、Broadeningtheiroptionsofcolleges.C、Benefitingfromalow-costschool.D、Workinghard
A、10:30PM.B、11:00PM.C、11:30PM.D、12:00PM.D男士说,餐馆周末的营业时间一直到午夜,即12:00pm。故答案是D。关键是分辨weekdays和weekend的不同营业时间,做笔记时要迅速和完整地记下细节,例如:w
A、Thesadnessofbeinginvolvedinaccidents.B、Waystolimittheuseofprivatecars.C、Theseriouspollutiononmotorroads.D
A、Theyhavethesameviewonsomeotherpoints.B、TheyagreethatwatchingTVbenefitsus.C、Theyarearguingtooseriouslyabou
A、Napsmayhelptoimproveworkefficiency.B、Napsmayhelpworkersworkforlongerhours.C、Napsmaystopworkersdevelopinghe
A、Ajoblisting.B、Apersonalresume.C、Apermissionslip.D、Asalaryrequirement.B细节题。文中提醒学生咨询时besuretobringaresume(一定要带上
A、Themassivegasunderground.B、Theirlackoftheneededskill.C、Theirlackofsuitabletools.D、Thesandunderthehill.D事实细
随机试题
撰写邮件可以选择纯文本格式与()格式。
患者,女,29岁。受凉后出现恶寒、发热,无汗,头痛,四肢酸痛,鼻塞声重,喉痒,咳嗽,咳白稀痰,舌苔薄白而润,脉浮。此证治法宜
甲公司需要一套乙公司生产的成套设备用来生产石英表,双方找丙公司商议,由丙公司购买并直接租给甲公司,于是甲、乙、丙公司签订如下合同:(一)由丙公司付给乙公司货款700万元,于当年年底和第二年年底两次付清,货款付清后所有权转移;(二)乙公司将精密成套设备代办托
各国对结婚的实质要件,一般主张适用什么法?()
下列事项,属于发包人应承担的义务是()。
下列各项中,不属于按照“工资、薪金所得”项目计征个人所得税的是()。
税务机关对可不设或应设未设账簿的或虽设账簿但难以查账的纳税人,可以采取查定征收方式。()
行政部李强负责本公司员工档案的日常管理,以及员工每年各项基本社会保险费用的计算。按照下列要求帮助李强完成相关数据的整理、计算、统计和分析工作:在工作表“社保计算”中,按照下列要求计算每个员工本年度每月应缴社保金额:①依据工作表“员工档案”中的
【61】【63】
Someoftoday’smostcutting-edgetechnologyisnowbeingusedtohelpstudentswithspecialneeds.Nolongerjusttheprovince
最新回复
(
0
)