Founded in mid-2013, the Catholic Research Economists Discussion Organization had its first membership meeting on January 4, 2014. The meeting was part of the Allied Social Sciences Association meetings in Philadelphia. CREDO members began with a Mass celebrated by Bishop John McIntyre at St. John the Evangelist’s Catholic Church.
The members followed Mass with a breakfast and meeting…
Welcome to the inaugural issue of the CREDO newsletter, “On the Margin.” What do you think of the title? More importantly, what did it make you think of?
The phrase “on the margin” has many different meanings to many different people. To research economists, we use the phrase to think about the costs or benefits of an additional good consumed, worker hired, etc. We think of phrases like “marginal cost”, “marginal product”, or “marginal utility”. To a finance economist, the phrase might mean buying securities “on the margin”, that is, with borrowed money. To businesspersons, the word “margin” might remind them of profit margins. To a person directly engaged with the social ministry of the Church, “on the margin” is a phrase that emphasizes a commitment to those on those people who are sometimes forgotten or neglected members of society, e.g., the poor, indigenous peoples, women and children, the elderly. …
Pope Francis–Time Magazine’s Person of the Year–has captured the attention and the imagination of the world. His recent Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel) has provoked much comment and no little controversy. In it, echoing his predecessors, he laments a consumerism focused on things rather than people. He mourns for the many places where humans serve the economy rather the other way around. He condemns what he calls a “throw away culture” that excludes and marginalizes the weakest and the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters.
His words should provoke reflection–and lead to action–especially in the face of the challenges faced by low-wage workers in our economy today. …
Recently Archbishop Wenski, on behalf of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote: “while they are not economists or labor market experts…they see the pain and struggles caused by an economy that simply does not produce enough jobs with a just wage.” They do propose one solution—a raise in the federal minimum wage—because currently it fails “to provide sufficient resources for individuals to form and support families. A full-year, full-time worker making the minimum wage does not make enough money to raise a child free from poverty.”
Neither the Bishops’ concern over the economic plight of the working poor nor the economic policy prescription they support is a surprise. …
As a Catholic economist, the minimum wage has always presented a conundrum for me. The argument that the minimum wage does not deliver the poverty relief it promises, and that programs such as the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) are more efficient, is rather persuasive. However, I worry that the current system does too little to preserve the dignity of work for low-skilled workers. The dignity of the person must be upheld in all aspects of life, including work. As stated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC),“In work, the person exercises and fulfills in part the potential inscribed in his nature (CCC, 2428).” Worker dignity is preserved in part when one’s efforts are “able to draw from work the means of providing for his life and that of his family, and of serving the human community (CCC, 2433).” In an increasingly global economy, the ability for low-skilled workers in the U.S. to provide for themselves and their families has diminished. …
Every year the Lumen Christi Institute conference on Catholic Social Teaching and Economics invites high-profile economists to the University of Chicago to present their work and engage in the ongoing conversation between economics and Catholic Social Teaching. On a larger stage, the Pontifical Academy of the Social Sciences regularly places top economists next to theologians, philosophers, and bishops to explore issues of common concern.
Why would an economist ever want to enter into a conversation with Catholic Social Teaching (CST)? Economists, like most people, take moral questions seriously, and think that the work of economists can and should inform attempts to answer these questions. Because CST is morally and intellectually serious, and invites prominent economists (Catholic and non-Catholic) into its conversations, it is an obvious candidate for attention from economists. …
A Statement of the U.S. Catholic Bishops, November 1996
As followers of Jesus Christ and participants in a powerful economy, Catholics in the United States are called to work for greater economic justice in the face of persistent poverty, growing income-gaps, and increasing discussion of economic issues in the United States and around the world. We urge Catholics to use the following ethical framework for economic life as principles for reflection, criteria for judgment and directions for action. These principles are drawn directly from Catholic teaching on economic life. …