Arin Dube / Arindrajit Dube

Arin Dube is the labor economist in The real horror of ‘Alien’ and how it explains why we’re not paid enough. The episode identifies him with UMass Amherst and uses his reading of Alien to explain how Labor Monopsony can lower wages and weaken working conditions even when workers are not literally trapped on a spaceship.

His book The Wage Standard supplies the episode’s policy and empirical frame. Through Dube, the episode connects Weyland-Yutani to Negative Job Amenities, Compensating Differentials, Shrouded Job Attributes, Labor Search Frictions, Non-Compete Agreements, and Labor Market Counterforces.

Connections

• The Wage Standard - book discussed in the episode.
• UMass Amherst - institutional affiliation in the source.
• Labor Monopsony, Monopsony By Artifice, and Labor Market Counterforces - core labor-market concepts he explains.
• Alien, Weyland-Yutani, and Planet Money - pop-culture teaching frame.