Arindrajit Dube

Provost Professor of Economics University of Massachusetts Amherst

  • Amherst MA

Arin Dube’s research focuses on labor economics, fiscal policy, minimum wage policies, income inequality and the economics of conflict.

Contact

University of Massachusetts Amherst

View more experts managed by University of Massachusetts Amherst

Expertise

Unemployment Benefits
Public Finance
Labor Economics
Fiscal Policy
Minimum Wage Policies
Income Inequality
Labor Unions
Unemployment

Biography

Arindrajit Dube is one of the world's leading scholars on the minimum wage and its effect on employment. His research focuses on labor economics, health economics, public finance, and political economy, particularly based around minimum wage policies, fiscal policy, income inequality, health reform and the economics of conflict.

He has been a much sought-after commentator on the effects of mass layoffs that happened during the COVID-19 pandemic and the continuing effect of unemployment and benefits on workers and the economy.

Social Media

Video

Education

University of Chicago,

Ph.D.

Economics

Stanford University

M.A.

Development Policy Studies

Stanford University

B.A.

Economics

Select Recent Media Coverage

Why Powell and Yellen May Have Pulled Off the Impossible with the Economy

Inc.  online

2024-10-17

Arindrajit Dube comments in a story about the state of the U.S. economy and inflation. He notes that real wages for the estimated 80% of American workers who are in non-managerial jobs are now not only higher than before the COVID-19 pandemic but are above the pre-pandemic trend.

View More

Handbook Talk with Arindrajit Dube: What are the effects of raising minimum wages?

Rockwool Foundation Berlin  online

2024-07-04

Arindrajit Dube, provost professor economics at UMass Amherst, is interviewed about the effects of raising the minimum wage. Dube says higher minimum wages do not necessarily lead to job losses, and they could help companies reduce turnover and retain workers.

View More

Trump, Immigration and the Lump of Labor Fallacy

The New York Times  online

2024-02-06

A columist writes, "When looking at numbers here, it’s important to take into account the effects of an aging population, which has caused a long-term downward trend in labor force participation. So I asked Arindrajit Dube of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, one of America’s top labor economists — and someone who knows his way around Bureau of Labor Statistics data much better than I do — to calculate employment rates among prime-age native-born Americans. Here’s what he found"

View More

Show All +

Select Publications

Credit Bidenomics for Rising US Wages

Project Syndicate

Arindrajit Dube

2024-02-08

Arindrajit Dube writes that President Joe Biden’s economic policies should be credited for rising wages especially among low and middle-income earners. “America’s positive wage trajectory is not a fluke, but rather a testament to the effectiveness of the proactive fiscal policies implemented during the pandemic, particularly US President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan,” Dube says.

View more

THE UNEXPECTED COMPRESSION: COMPETITION AT WORK IN THE LOW WAGE LABOR MARKET

NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH

David Autor, Arindrajit Dube and Annie McGrew

2023-03-09

"Labor market tightness following the height of the Covid-19 pandemic led to an unexpected
compression in the US wage distribution that reflects, in part, an increase in labor market
competition ..."

View more

A Plan to Reform the Unemployment Insurance System in the United States

The Hamilton Project

Arindrajit Dube

2021-04-12

Arindrajit Dube's plan proposes remedies for current problems facing the unemployment insurance program in the United States and argues that these remedies are best achieved through converting the unemployment insurance system to a fully federal program.

View more