How Piketty is wrong—and right
High-skilled workers reap outsized income gains.
Content: Article | Authors: Howard R. Gold, Kevin M. Murphy, Robert H. Topel, Thomas Piketty | Source: Capital Ideas | Subject: Economics
How Gary Becker Saw the Scourge of Discrimination
In the 1950s, few economists thought of phenomena such as racial discrimination as under their purview. That changed in 1957, when Gary S. Becker, Professor of Economics and of Sociology at the University of Chicago and at Chicago Booth before his death in 2014, published The Economics of Discrimination, a book based on his 1955 PhD thesis.
Becker’s analysis would extend the reach of economics, and … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Authors: Gary S. Becker, Kevin M. Murphy | Source: Capital Ideas | Subjects: Economics, History
For Richer or For Poorer: Working Spouses and Labor Inequality
Since the 1960s, have married women increased their participation in the labor force to compensate for the decline in employment and disappointing earnings growth of their husbands? Are married men working less today because their wives are working more?
Content: Article | Authors: Chinhui Juhn, Kevin M. Murphy | Source: Capital Ideas | Subjects: Economics, Women in Business
Accounting For Tastes: A Simple Theory of Advertising As A Good Or Bad
“Economists, traditionally, have had a very uneasy relationship with advertising,” says University of Chicago professor Gary Becker. “Consumer preferences were thought to be either too stable or too easily manipulated.” But in his latest book, “Accounting For Tastes,” Becker employs the tools of modern economic analysis to confront the problem of preferences and values — how they are formed and how they affect our behavior. … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Authors: Gary S. Becker, Kevin M. Murphy | Source: Capital Ideas | Subjects: Advertising, Economics | Industry: Advertising