Commentary

Environmental regulations and business decisions

How costly are environmental regulations, and how do their costs compare with their benefits?

Labor market issues in the 2017 French presidential election

High unemployment in France is one of the main issues of the presidential election of May 2017.

Immigration and native workers' health

The public debate on immigration tends to focus on its effects on wages and employment. It typically fails to consider the effects of immigration on working conditions that are known to affect employees’ health.

Not bad at all—the true state of the US labor market

In his February 25 New York Times opinion piece “A time for immodest proposals” Ross Douthat quoted a right-leaning economist who stated that the US labor market is not doing well, with unemployment high and wages stagnating. This seems to be a general opinion, with Donald Trump complaining during the election campaign about high unemployment and Bernie Sanders arguing about falling living standards. With a carefully chosen base period for comparison, one can easily demonstrate either improving or declining conditions; but the correct basis is a time when unemployment is about the same as today’s 4.8%. As the figure shows, that time is 2000.