regulation and employment

The Miracle Elixir for Economic Growth: More Pollution!

Trump claims allowing more water and air pollution will boost the economy through the stratosphere.

Is increased pollution the key to economic growth? Can we increase economic growth by dropping restrictions on air and water pollution and ramping up climate change? Donald Trump believes that the answer is yes – indeed, if that if we just get rid of those pesky environmental regulations, we can create 500,000 new jobs every year, …

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Econ101, Ideological Blinders, and the New Head of CBO

There are troubling indications that Keith Hall lets ideology blind him to basic economics.

Last week, in a post about the employment effect of regulations, I mentioned briefly that the new Director of the Congressional Budget Office, Keith Hall, had endorsed some questionable views on the subject.  A reader pointed me toward an additional writing that has done a lot to escalate my concerns.  There are disturbing signs about both Hall’s ideological bias …

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Regulatory Uncertainty & Jobs: The Evidence

It remains a common refrain that regulatory uncertainty is causing joblessness.  The evidence indicates that this is simply wrong.  Consider three major facts. First, as Think Progress has pointed out, unemployment is currently lowest in health care, extractive industries, and the financial sector — exactly the areas where there is the most on-going regulatory effort. …

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