Arindrajit Dube
Provost Professor of Economics | University of Massachusetts Amherst
Amherst, MA, UNITED STATES
Arin Dube’s research focuses on labor economics, fiscal policy, minimum wage policies, income inequality and the economics of conflict.
Expertise (8)
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.
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Education (3)
University of Chicago,: Ph.D., Economics
Stanford University: M.A., Development Policy Studies
Stanford University: B.A., Economics
Links (2)
Select Recent Media Coverage (11)
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.
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"
Q&A: Arin Dube on the Benefits of Full Employment
The American Prospect online
2023-12-21
Arindrajit Dube is interviewed about the benefits of full employment. “We gave up on full employment in the 1980s. That was really a mistake that gave up a lot for American workers,” Dube says. “It’s great to see that turn around.”
The forever labor shortage is pitting parents and their childfree coworkers against each other
Business Insider online
2023-12-03
Arindrajit Dube comments in an article about workplace conflicts between employees with children and employees without children who have said they often feel pressured to pick up extra shifts so their coworkers can attend to childcare needs. Using the term “greedy jobs,” which was coined by another economist, Dube says, “If the work process is designed to be less ‘greedy’ it more easily accommodates passing on tasks across workers, and it’s a lot less high stakes an event when someone has to take time off to take care of a family member.”
The ‘Great Resignation’ Is Over. Can Workers’ Power Endure?
The New York Times online
2023-07-06
“There are good reasons to think that at least a chunk of the changes that we’ve seen in the low-wage labor market will prove lasting,” said Arindrajit Dube, a University of Massachusetts professor who has studied the pandemic economy.
Covid transformed the U.S. labor market, and it isn’t done yet
NBC News tv
2023-05-12
A study found that wage gains among the lowest-paid workers have substantially slowed the growth of income inequality. Co-author Arindrajit Dube said the scale of low earners’ pay gains was striking — rising 6% from January 2020 to September 2022. “Wage growth at the bottom is really making the labor market more equal. Lower-wage workers have been pulling in more income because they’ve been able to leave, because they’ve been able to find better jobs,” he said.
Low-Wage Jobs Are Becoming Middle-Class Jobs
The Atlantic print
2023-03-04
We finally had a tight labor market with a well-functioning job ladder, meaning that people were leaving the worst-paying jobs,” Arindrajit Dube, an economist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, told me. States and cities lifting their minimum wages might have helped bolster the trend—indeed, one analysis found that, before the coronavirus hit, wage compression was occurring only in states that were lifting their minimums.
There's one hopeful sign for the Fed on inflation. Really.
Politico online
2022-07-13
In an article discussing hopeful signs for the Federal Reserve amid rising inflation, Professor Arin Dube says wages now seem to be rising at a reasonable rate that isn’t problematic from an inflation perspective. “But if wage growth slows down a little and inflation stays high, that’s not good for workers,” he says. “Threading the needle is what we’d like to see happen.”
Social Security pays the same no matter where you live. Unemployment should, too
The Boston Globe print
2021-05-23
"University of Massachusetts Amherst labor economist Arindrajit Dube last month released a plan laying out how to do just that. His policy paper, published by the Hamilton Project of the Brookings Institution, argued that taking control of unemployment insurance from the states is the best way for the federal government to tackle the system’s thorniest problems, including stingy jobless pay, overly strict eligibility rules, and the lack of “triggers” that effectively link benefits to economic conditions."
When Amazon Raises Its Minimum Wage, Local Companies Follow Suit
The New York Times print
2021-03-10
“In a very simple supply-and-demand, competitive market, firms are just paying the market wage,” said Arindrajit Dube, a University of Massachusetts economist who has studied the minimum wage. In reality, he said, wages “are shaped by market forces but also by norms, pressure as well as policies.”
Here are the pros and cons of a $15 per hour federal minimum wage
CNBC tv
2021-02-16
Arindrajit Dube, economics professor at UMass Amherst and research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, joined "Squawk Box" on Tuesday to discuss the pros and cons of raising the federal minimum wage
Select Publications (3)
Credit Bidenomics for Rising US Wages
Project SyndicateArindrajit 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.
THE UNEXPECTED COMPRESSION: COMPETITION AT WORK IN THE LOW WAGE LABOR MARKET
NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCHDavid 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 ..."
A Plan to Reform the Unemployment Insurance System in the United States
The Hamilton ProjectArindrajit 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.
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