Cornell University, USA, University of Melbourne, Australia, 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
Sarah Gibson Blanding Professor of Public Policy, Department of Policy Analysis and Management, Cornell University, USA; Professorial Research Fellow, Melbourne Institute, University of Melbourne, Australia
Website
Positions/functions as a policy advisor
Consultant to the Australian Government Productivity Commission on Effects of the Australian Minimum Wage on Employment 2015
Past positions
Professor, Syracuse University, 1990–1998; Fellow, Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Science, 1990–1991; Professor, Vanderbilt University, 1979–1990
Qualifications
PhD Economics, University of Chicago, 1976
Selected publications
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“Accounting for income changes over the Great Recession: The importance of taxes and transfers.” National Tax Journal 68:2 (2015): 281–318 (with J. Larrimore and P. Armour).
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“Does early-life income inequality predict self-reported health in later life? Evidence from the United States.” Social Science and Medicine 128 (2015): 347–355 (with D. R. Lillard, M. H. Hahn, and R. Wilkins).
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“Measuring top incomes using tax records data: A cautionary tale from Australia.” Journal of Economic Inequality 13:2 (2015): 181–205 (with M. Hahn and R. Wilkins).
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“Levels and trends in United States income and its distribution: A crosswalk from market income towards a comprehensive Haig-Simons income measure.” Southern Economic Journal 81:2 (2014): 271–293 (with P. Armour and J. Larrimore).
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“Recent trends in top income shares in the USA: Reconciling estimates from March CPS and IRS tax return data.” Review of Economics and Statistics 94:2 (2012): 371–388 (with S. Feng, S. Jenkins, and J. Larrimore).
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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