Cornell University, USA, and IZA, Germany
IZA World of Labor role
Author, Topic spokesperson
Expertise
Minimum wage (US), Earned income tax credit, US disability and retirement (OASDI) reform, Income inequality: top income shares, Income inequality trends
Country
United States
Languages
English - Native speaker
Media experience
Print, Digital, Television, Radio
rvb1@cornell.edu
Phone
1 6072575493
Current position
Emeritus Sarah Gibson Blanding Professor of Public Policy, Department of Policy Analysis and Management, Cornell University, USA
Positions/functions as a policy advisor
Former Member of the Council of Economic Advisers, USA, 2017–2019; Consultant to the Australian Government Productivity Commission on Effects of the Australian Minimum Wage on Employment 2015
Past positions
Professorial Research Fellow, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, University of Melbourne, Australia, 2012–2017; Senior Research Fellow, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, 2016–2017; Professor, Syracuse University, 1990–1998
Qualifications
PhD Economics, University of Chicago, 1976
Selected publications
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“Top incomes and inequality in the UK: Reconciling estimates from household survey and tax return data.” Oxford Economic Papers 70:2 (2018): 301–326 (with N. Hérault, S. Jenkins, and R. Wilkins).
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“Survey under-coverage of top incomes and estimation of inequality: What is the role of the UK's SPI adjustment?” Fiscal Studies 39:2 (2018): 213–240 (with N. Hérault, S. Jenkins, and R. Wilkins).
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“Minimum cash wages, tipped restaurant workers, and poverty.” Industrial Relations 57:4 (2018): 637–670 (with J. J. Sabia and T. Mackay).
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“Measuring health insurance benefits: The case of people with disabilities.” Contemporary Economic Policy 35:3 (2017): 439–456 (with J. Larrimore and S. Lyons).
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“When good measurement goes wrong: New evidence that New York State's minimum wage reduced employment.” Industrial and Labor Relations Review 69:2 (2016): 312–319 (with J. J. Sabia and B. Hansen).
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The minimum wage versus the earned income tax credit for reducing poverty
Enhancing the earned income tax credit would do more to reduce poverty, at less cost, than increasing the minimum wage
Richard V. Burkhauser, May 2015Minimum wage increases are not an effective mechanism for reducing poverty. And there is little causal evidence that they do so. Most workers who gain from minimum wage increases do not live in poor (or near-poor) families, while some who do live in poor families lose their job as a result of such increases. The earned income tax credit is an effective way to reduce poverty. It raises only the after-tax wage rates of workers in low- and moderate-income families, its tax credit increases with the number of dependent children, and evidence shows that it increases labor force participation and employment in these families.MoreLess