Author: Matt Bruenig

For me, this election differed from the last two in that my particular policy interests — a universalist welfare state, mass unionization, and socialization of wealth — were absent. The Biden administration achieved nothing significant on these fronts. There was no primary campaign that featured a candidate championing these causes. Harris did not run on… Continue reading Election Musings

Ten days ago, Kamala Harris released her Lowering Costs Agenda (LCA), a five-page list of various policy proposals that all ostensibly relate back to lowering prices. The LCA contains the following text about grocery costs: Lowering Grocery Costs Vice President Harris knows that rising food prices remain a top concern for American families. Many big… Continue reading The Stupid Price Gouging Discourse

Joe Biden put up an issues page on his campaign website late last month. I have been publicly wondering when, if ever, we would get some kind of formal policy platform from Biden, and so I am happy to see that now there is one. Unfortunately, Biden’s list of issues does not really contain much… Continue reading The Joe Biden Policy Platform

The prevailing consensus in the economics literature is that women suffer a significant earnings penalty after they have children. More precisely, women who have children end up with lower earnings than women who do not, holding all else equal. Recent research using Nordic administrative data have called this consensus into question. Reconciling Estimates of the… Continue reading Does The Child Earnings Penalty Actually Exist?

Yale announced today that it will reinstate a requirement that applicants to the school submit scores from a standardized college admissions exam. Yale says that making these tests optional is harming low-income students whose scores could have helped them get in. Over at People’s Policy Project, we have occasionally published articles about college admissions exams,… Continue reading A Personal Case for College Admissions Exams