The Futility of Empirical Policy Analysis Without Normative Policy Analysis: The Case of the Living Wage

Abstract

The debate over instituting a living wage—a wage level sufficient to support a family, mandated on companies doing business with or receiving subsidies from a government—is used to demonstrate that empirical policy analysis without normative policy analysis is futile as an aid to rational decisions. The article shows that competing ethical theories are being advanced in this debate, each of these theories makes different empirical evidence important (and thus empirical evidence alone cannot determine the right decision), and deferring ethical questions to political resolution is not a solution. It concludes with some comments on the normative analysis of the living wage.