What Wharton experts say about the effectiveness of trickle-down economics:
KENT SMETTERS SAYS IT IS JUST A CLEVER NEGATIVE SOUND BITE. (source)
JOAO GOMES HAS A HARD TIME WITH THE TERMINOLOGY AND THE IDEA OF TRICKLE-DOWN ECONOMICS. Although everyone in the popular press has a somewhat different characterization of what this means, this is not something we have tested or seriously theorized about as economists. (source)
ROBERT P. INMAN SAYS THE REAL QUESTION BECOMES: HOW BIG OF AN EFFECT ON INVESTMENT WILL THERE BE, AND IF THERE IS NEW INVESTMENT IN CAPITAL, WILL IT BENEFIT WORKERS? He suspects that most of the new machinery will be very sophisticated, high-tech investment. If so, the trickle down, the wage premium for those at the lower ends of the income distribution, will be rather modest. The trickle-down will probably stop at [jobs paying] about $50,000. (source)
