Professor Rolnick and his colleagues have quantified the returns on investment in early education: boosting labor productivity, increasing tax revenue, and reducing by up to 50 percent costs associated with special education services and crime. Their essential argument is that if children show up to kindergarten ready-to-learn they will do better in school and, eventually, be better prepared for the workforce and less reliant on social programs. This benefits our society and our economy.

Boston.com
May 17, 2012

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While this is just emerging as a public policy issue of the first order, the economic literature on occupational licensing has been conclusive for a long time, the lion share of the empirical work having been done by Morris Kleiner. He published an excellent summary of his work in the Fall 2000 issue of the Journal of Economic Perspectives. Six years later he published a more comprehensive summery in the book Licensing Occupations: Ensuring Quality or Restricting Competition?

Oregon Catalyst
May 17, 2012

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Most immigrants in Minnesota are seeking safety from violence or persecution. In other words, establishing a profile to justify "reasonable suspicion" of illegal immigration may prove difficult, if not impossible. Instead, Minnesotans may want to direct their gaze toward who stands to benefit from an increased numbers of detained individuals. This is an easy profile to establish.

Star Tribune
May 15, 2012

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All of the 102 occupations studied in License to Work are licensed in at least one state. On average, these government-mandated licenses force aspiring workers to spend nine months in education or training, pass one exam and pay more than $200 in fees. One third of the licenses take more than one year to earn. At least one exam is required for 79 of the occupations.... Noted licensure expert Morris Kleiner found that in the 1950s, only one in 20 U.S. workers needed government permission to pursue their chosen occupation. Today, it is closer to one in three. Yet research to date provides little evidence that licensing protects public health and safety or improves products and services. Instead, it increases consumer costs and reduces opportunities for workers....

The Volokh Conspiracy
May 14, 2012

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A holistic approach to schooling in developing countries-considering schooling in conjunction with labor force work, child care, and other household responsibilities-is necessary to construct policies that will encourage greater educational attainment, especially for children and youth in poor families. Using data from the Encuesta Nacional de Empleo Urbano (ENEU), we jointly estimate the determinants of studying and working, doing both, or doing neither for 12 to 17 year-olds in urban Mexico.

Social Science Research Network
May 12, 2012

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Even a billion-dollar stadium is a "drop in the economic bucket" in a state with an annual gross domestic product of more than $270 billion, said economist Arthur Rolnick, a senior fellow at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute and former senior vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

MinnPost
May 11, 2012

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Since the 1950s, the number of U.S. workers needing an occupational license--effectively a government permission slip to work--has grown from one in 20 to nearly one in three, according to a 2010 study by Morris Kleiner (University of Minnesota) and Alan Krueger (Princeton). The burdens these licenses impose on would-be workers and entrepreneurs are substantial, as a study released this week by the Institute for Justice documents. "License to Work" collected licensure requirements for 102 low- and middle-income occupations--barber, massage therapist, auctioneer and interior designer, for instance--in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Wall Street Journal
May 10, 2012

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"Our study finds that occupational licensing is widespread. More than that, it finds that the burdens imposed on job-seekers and would-be entrepreneurs are often severe, arbitrary and irrational," the report says.

WND
May 8, 2012

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"There's a lot of interest in having current data," Fennelly said. "Sometimes we have all sorts of opinions about immigration that aren't based on data. There are groups that are hungry for data. We have created this website for exactly that purpose."

Star Tribune
May 8, 2012

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Also seen in Refugee Resettlement Watch
May 9, 2012

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Also seen in Global Notes
May 16, 2012

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Noted licensure expert Morris Kleiner found that in the 1950s only one in 20 U.S. workers needed government permission to pursue their chosen occupation. Today, it is closer to one in three. Yet research to date provides little evidence that licensing protects public health and safety or improves products and services. Instead, it increases consumer costs and reduces opportunities for workers.

Tipster 2.0
May, 8 2012

Minnesota native Patrick McGrann has spent the last 15 years creating toys, games and events for young people living in the midst of violence. He's worked in Sudan, Iraq, Somalia, Yemen, and most recently, Gaza. His talk is titled, "Playing for Peace in Gaza."

Minnesota Public Radio
May 3, 2012

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Last month, as the U.S. Supreme Court held oral arguments over the so-called individual mandate in President Obama's federal health care reform law, the justices looked for a logical basis to determine whether and when Congress has a proper constitutional power to make people buy things.

Policy Catalyst
May 1, 2012

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However, Doug Chapin, director of excellence in election administration at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at University of Minnesota, addressed the Secretary of the State Elections Performance Task force on increased voter turnout by stating that, "It is like trying to drive a screw with a hammer. ... Implementing vote by mail, vote centers, or the like, thinking it will have some sort of impact on turnout, is misguided; it might, but likely will not. ... Turnout tends to be driven by what's on the ballot rather than when, where and how it is available."

Connecticut Post
April 20, 2012

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Stadium debate aside, Rolnick's arguments on behalf of preschoolers - delivered with passion, wit and persuasive data - have stirred a potent movement in Minnesota and far beyond. From the Frogtown playground to policymaker gatherings in palatial international settings, Rolnick has thrust the cause of early education into the forefront like never before.

MinnPost
April 16, 2012

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To keep their dreams alive, Canadian activists will now have to develop new and private resources. Raising private money poses its own ethical quandaries, but there seem to be few other options on the horizon. Sympathetic Canadian citizens, for their part, will now have to dig deep into their own pocket to support the causes they hold dear.

Open Democracy
April 14, 2012

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Also seen in Toronto Star
April 14, 2012

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