Understanding effects of economic policies on jobs and incomes is the focus of three new studies underway by David Neumark, UCI Distinguished Professor of economics and co-director of the Center for Population, Inequality, and Policy.

The first, “The Effects of the California Competes Tax Credit on Interstate Job and Business Reallocation,” examines how economic development incentives affect both targeted and non-targeted areas. Neumark and Matthew Freedman, professor of economics at UCI, Ben Hyman, economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and Shantanu Khanna, UCI economics Ph.D. ’22 and assistant professor of public policy and economics at Northeastern University, are working together to weigh the magnitude of the policy’s job/business creation effects vs. reallocation effects and determine if tradeoffs across different areas result in net welfare gains or losses. The one-year study, funded by a $16,772 grant from the National Bureau of Economic Research, began in February and runs through December.

The second project is a research partnership with the Public Policy Institute of California to analyze numerous policies to increase economic opportunities for Californians. Neumark will also work with PPIC to develop a strategy and research agenda to study how to improve policies to increase economic opportunities. Funding for this work began in June and runs through June 2023.

The third, “Labor Market Monopsony,” explores key questions about effects of minimum wage shifts in geographic areas where job opportunities are concentrated among small numbers of employers, “because in such markets—in theory, at least—minimum wages may not decrease and could even increase employment,” Neumark explains. The one-year study, funded by a $43,140 grant from the International Center for Law & Economics, began in July and runs through June 2023.