With the publication of his book, The Redistribution Recession: How Labor Market Distortions Contracted the Economy," Professor Casey Mulligan has created a mighty stir among fellow economists and the general public. His argument is simple and unconventional: The U.S. economy remains stuck in the doldrums because the stimulus policies of the Obama Administration have worsened rather than improved the unemployment problem.

Mulligan argues that labor-force participation is stuck at a historical low, despite the Obama stimulus and the Federal Reserve's quantitative-easing policies, because it has become unrewarding to work. His Wall Street Journal article, "How ObamaCare Wrecks the Work Ethic," predicts a "second wave" of redistributionist policies that will have the effect of paying people to stay out of the labor force.

Casey B. Mulligan, Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago, is affiliated with the National Bureau of Economic Research, the George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State, and the Population Research Center. His research covers capital and labor taxation, the gender wage gap, Social Security, voting, and the economics of aging. He is the author of Parental Priorities and Economic Inequality and writes blog entries for the NY Times and blogsupplyanddemand.com. This event is not a Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance sponsored event.