Legal Commentary

Calculations

By Big Tent Democrat

Via dougj, I looked at this David Brooks column and was struck by this:

It is very hard for policy makers to use money to directly alter these viewpoints. In her book, “What Money Can’t Buy,” Susan E. Mayer of the University of Chicago calculated what would happen if you could double the income of the poorest Americans. The results would be disappointingly small. Doubling parental income would barely reduce dropout rates of the children. It would have a small effect on reducing teen pregnancy. It would barely improve child outcomes overall.

(Emphasis supplied.) Not having read the book, I am curious as to how these "calculations" were done. Obviously the scientific method of observation was not employed - we haven't doubled the income of poorest Americans. So how exactly were these "calculations" done?

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on May 04, 2010 (boomark / email).