is easily verifiable because it is based on objective data
gives policymakers more power to make decisionsallows individuals to make wiser choices with their economic and financial liveswe can t always separate our emotions from the factseconomics isn t an exact science so there are no fool proof solutions or conclusionspolicies and solutions that arise from positive economics don t affect everyone the same wayreal world examples of positive economicslet s consider the fight for 15 movement which calls for a 15 minimum wage on face value this may be considered a policy proposal grounded in normative economics 5 after all the stance that a 15 minimum wage is ideal represents a value judgment proponents argue that raising the minimum wage would be good while opponents argue that it would be harmful there has been a lot of research about minimum wage increases but there are no definitive findings that offer broad sweeping conclusions about whether higher minimum wages are good or bad but there are details from certain studies that could be considered examples of positive economics in 2015 the city of seattle passed a local ordinance to gradually increase the minimum wage for workers in the city the move meant that all workers would earn at least 15 per hour by 2021 or sooner depending on specific employment details since that time there have been two major studies on the impact of the law a study by researchers from the university of california berkeley focused specifically on restaurant employees according to study unemployment in seattle went from 5 7 in 2012 to 3 6 in 2016 median annual earnings for employees increased by 13 4 over those years 6according to these researchers employees of fast food restaurants saw an increase in their earnings thanks to an increase in seattle s minimum wage this specific data is an example of positive economics but the researchers conclusion that the higher minimum wage was a success is not this is because the focus of the study was not broad or exhaustive enough to make such a finding meanwhile researchers at the university of washington concluded that the minimum wage increase was not successful that conclusion another value judgment is also not an example of positive economics however some of the specific data they collected would be an example of positive economics 7for instance they discovered that when the minimum wage increased the hours worked by low wage employees decreased thus the total payroll for low income employees fell by roughly 125 per month following the minimum wage increase 7 the number of low wage workers decreased by 1 and hours for those still employed decreased slightly as well 