Another Con

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.balloon-juice.com/2011/03/05/another-con/#comments

by Kay

The Indiana Chamber of Commerce dominated the “Right To Work” debate in Indiana until last Thursday, when The Higgins Labor Study Program at the University of Notre Dame had the temerity to weigh in: (pdf)

Empirically, the argument that RTW laws will, in the long run, lead to higher wages is not accurate either. Since the Taft-Hartley Act was passed in 1947, and since 18 of the 22 RTW states had passed RTW laws by 1955, the long run should have already arrived. But the evidence indicates, as
noted above (Gould and Shierholz, 2011), that wages and benefits today are lower for union and non-union workers in RTW states than in non-RTW states. If the Chamber’s argument seems familiar, it is because it is the same “trickle-down” approach that has been used repeatedly in the past thirty years.

And here’s the Indiana Chambers response:

(INDIANAPOLIS)— Dr. Richard Vedder, an Ohio University economist and principal author of the recent Indiana Chamber of Commerce-released study, Right-to-Work and Indiana’s Economic Future, comments on the latest union-backed attack of his work:
“The ‘analysis’ released today from the Higgins Labor Studies Program at the University of Notre Dame is not surprising considering that supporting unions is actually spelled out as part of the program’s mission statement.
“The Higgins response to the Indiana Chamber’s right-to-work study is embarrassingly weak. It offers no new research to refute our study, but rather uses lame arguments, such as the claim that per capita income is an inappropriate measure. Much of the work we incorporated into the Indiana study was published in a refereed academic journal – something that cannot be said for the Higgins effort.”

Hmmm…..a recent report in the libertarian Cato Institute’s Cato Journal written by Ohio University economics Prof. Richard Vedder….

FULL story at link.