Two from other econobloggers

Two from other econobloggers:

Alex Tabarrok shows clearly why a letter signed by some economists in support of raising the minimum wage is "confused".

Peter Klein states that he was bewildered the first time he heard the phrase, "evidence based management". He asks: what other kind is there? Good question, but one that can be addressed rather easily by visiting a local Barnes & Noble and perusing the "Management" shelf.

Comments

[Nathan Tabor]

Excellent weblog.

As the November elections come closer, perhaps you will
give us your take on state and national candidates.
For instance, NC State Sen. Fred Smith is a true
conservative on both fiscal and social issues. It would
be interesting to get your opinion of this fine man.

[JorgXMcKie]

Perhaps I should give Klein a glimpse into the "other kind" of management that I have worked under at various times. It was usually called (by me, at least) WAG Manangement (Wild-Assed Guesses). When they used a few facts, etc it moved to the SWAG (Scientifice Wild-Assed Guesses), but I never really worked for management (especially including my current university) that even remotely approached Evidence Based Management.

I did, however, successfully manage my own business for several years using evidence based methods. It originally drove both my customers (they weren't used to getting charged for only the services they actually wanted, and at prices set at my cost plus a profit margin) and my employees (some weren't used to getting paid based on actual useful output and profit), but in my industry the state published reports on the 600+ businesses like mine, and where the average gross profit margin was 1.75% I was routinely at 3.5% and above for four straight years.

Just because it works doesn't seem to hold much water when there are so many other more interesting ways to manage.