# Arindrajit Dube on Wages

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/paul-krugman-podcast-7703924/arindrajit-dube-on-wages
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/paul-krugman-podcast-7703924/arindrajit-dube-on-wages.md
Podcast: [Paul Krugman Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/paul-krugman-podcast-7703924)
Published: 2026-06-20T10:30:00+00:00
Episode link: https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/arindrajit-dube-on-wages
Audio file: https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/202787714/fa61a9176054c7df054a770f3da1c61d.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/paul-krugman-podcast-7703924/episodes/arindrajit-dube-on-wages
Duration seconds: 3212

## Resource

I often think of labor economics as a role model for the field: a subfield in which theory is disciplined by evidence and (most) researchers are willing to listen to that evidence even when it challenges their preconceptions. And hardly anyone does modern labor economics as well as UMass Amherst’s Arindrajit Dube, who has an excellent new book out. I talked with him about that book and the state of labor more generally. . . . TRANSCRIPT: Paul Krugman in Conversation with Arindrajit Dube (recorded 6/18/26) Paul Krugman : One of the most satisfying parts of economics, which doesn’t get as much attention as it should, is labor economics. It’s obviously important. Most of us work for a living, or at least pretend to work for a living. But also it is a field, a subfield you might say; more scientific than almost anything else in economics, really evidence-based. You’ve had multiple revelations where the data have actually changed the way people, myself included, have thought about stuff. And among the most effective, prominent practitioners of modern labor economics is Arin Dube , who has a new book called The Wage Standard . And I thought we’d take a break from all the other stuff going on and talk about Arin’s work . So hi, Arin. Arindrajit Dube : Hi Paul, nice to see you. Krugman : Yeah, welcome to my virtual studio. Why don’t you talk just a little bit about The Wage Standard and what you’re trying to do, and then we can get into the broader labor economics issues? Dube : Yeah. So, I wrote a book. Here it is. Krugman : By the way, we mostly don’t do that in economics; we write 5,000-word articles. Dube : Exactly. Paul, of course, you’ve written many amazing books. But economists don’t usually write books. We publish articles. Krugman : That’s right. Dube : And so it was…

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## Transcript

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