Thanks to the generosity of Lynn Scarpati, the Department of Economics is proud to announce the 2nd annual conference in the Spring 2025 semester.
Undergraduate economics majors and MA/MS students in Economics are eligible and are invited to participate. Non-economics majors with sufficient economics background are also eligible.
We are pleased to invite you to the 2nd Jim and Matthew Scarpati Honorary Applied Economics Conference on Friday, May 16th in Fronczak 408. This year’s conference will feature student research presentations and discussions about Economic consequences, costs, and benefits of minimum wage regulation with the conference’s donor, Lynn Scarparti joining to serve as a judge.
Participating students will present their papers in a conference format at the end of the Spring semester. The best and runner-up papers, selected by a faculty panel of judges, will be awarded $ 3,000 and $ 2,000 respectively.
To participate in the conference:
Economic consequences, costs, and benefits of minimum wage regulation.
An important and recurring policy question in economics is whether there should be a minimum wage. A number of questions arise about whether such a policy is beneficial or costly to society and how such a policy affects employment, equity and economic well being in the labor market.
In the U.S. the minimum wage differs considerably by State and has changed over time: Minimum Wage Rates by State 2024 (minimum-wage.org)
Views about minimum wage that have been examined by economists are:
Readable articles on the debate can be found by going to Google Scholar and typing “minimum wage” in the search field and then selecting various subtopics on the minimum wage. For example: