Do managers throughout the country need to be coerced by government to run their firms more efficiently? (Donald J. Boudreaux on the new overtime rules)

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"Here’s a letter to the Wall Street Journal:

In your report on Pres. Obama’s proposal to force more workers to accept as part of their employment contracts greater eligibility for overtime pay, you quote Sloan School of Management professor Thomas Kochan saying that such a government-imposed mandate “helps drive up productivity” by leading “management to look for more efficient ways of doing their business” (“Overtime Rules Send Bosses Scrambling,” July 21).

Wow.  One wonders what’s being taught at business schools such as Sloan.  If Prof. Kochan is correct that managers throughout the country must be coerced by government – which is manned chiefly by people with J.D.s and not MBAs – to run their firms more efficiently, the value of a business-school education must be quite low.  Do such schools teach their students even less about how to efficiently run businesses than is taught to students in law schools?  Apparently so.

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
and
Martha and Nelson Getchell Chair for the Study of Free Market Capitalism at the Mercatus Center
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA  22030"