October 30, 2023
Does Wage Theft Vary by Demographic Group? Evidence from Minimum Wage Increases
Using Current Population Survey data, we assess whether and to what extent the burden of wage theft — wage payments below the statutory minimum wage — falls disproportionately on various demographic groups following minimum wage increases. For most racial and ethnic groups at most ages we find that underpayment rises similarly as a fraction of…
October 27, 2023
Food Insecurity in the US and Inflation
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has released its annual report on household food security—a survey that measures whether US households have “access at all times to enough food for an active, healthy lifestyle.” The report documented the largest yearly increase in food insecurity since the Great Recession—increasing from 10.2 to 12.8 percent of all US households…
October 27, 2023
What Happened to the American Dream?
In the agonized debates over how it can possibly be that Donald Trump has such a strong chance of being returned to the White House in 2024, it’s important to stress the ways in which the Trump economy, before the arrival of Covid, departed in positive ways from the trends of the last half-century. Trump’s presidency was…
October 26, 2023
Working from Density
Is the COVID-19-driven surge in remote work temporary or permanent? To assess how the geography of work may evolve, we analyze the pre-pandemic status quo. Casual theorizing might suggest that workers with teleworkable jobs in the pre-pandemic era were more likely to live in the less dense, peripheral neighborhoods in their metropolitan area. Instead, we…
October 25, 2023
Dispelling Myths About The Child Tax Credit
Every culture has its famous myths, such as Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster, and the world of politics is no different. Take, for example, President Joe Biden’s claims that he is a unifier or that ” Bidenomics” is working . The president offered another mythical claim last month when he said that “we cut child poverty by nearly half ……
October 24, 2023
Testimony: The Consequences of Redrawing the Poverty Line
Chairman Smith, Chairman LaHood, Ranking Member Davis, and distinguished members of theSubcommittee on Work and Welfare, thank you for the opportunity to testify on povertymeasurement. My name is Kevin Corinth, and I am a Senior Fellow and the Deputy Director ofthe Center on Opportunity and Social Mobility at the American Enterprise Institute. Thistestimony reflects my…
October 23, 2023
Spatial Spillovers and the Effects of Fiscal Stimulus: Evidence from Pandemic-Era Federal Aid for State and Local Governments
Abstract We analyse whether US federal aid to state and local governments impacted economic activity through either direct or cross-state spillover effects during the COVID-19 pandemic. Deploying an instrumental-variables framework rooted in the funding advantage of states that are over-represented in Congress, we find that federal assistance had significantly less impact on state and local…
October 23, 2023
A Carbon Tax to Finance Child Tax Credit Expansion
A carbon tax is considered by most economists to be the most efficient and effective way to reduce carbon emissions. However, a long-standing political challenge to a carbon tax is the perception that it would disproportionately burden low- and middle-income households relative to high-income households. Many analysts and lawmakers have proposed using carbon tax revenues…
October 20, 2023
Value Needs to be the Next Buzzword in Higher Education
For a long time, advocates and policymakers in the higher education space were fixated on improving “access” to higher education. As a society, we recognized that higher education was a powerful tool for promoting social mobility, and helping people born into lower-income households advance financially and pursue fulfilling careers. We also realized that higher education…
October 20, 2023
Revenge of the Rust Belt: The Surprising Forces That Have Made the Midwest the Hottest Housing Market Around
In the Fortune article below Shawn Tully discusses the resurgence of the Midwest’s housing market with Ed Pinto, the Director of AEI’s Housing Center. According to American Enterprise Institute data, eight of the nine cities achieving the highest appreciation in housing prices for the 12 months ended Aug. 31 hail from the Midwest. In the pandemic-driven housing…