The Tuesday Podcast: How Do You Create A Job?

Paul Sakuma/AP

Every politician promises to create jobs. On today's Planet Money, we ask: What does that mean?

We ask Princeton economist Orley Ashenfelter what he thinks when politicians say they created jobs.

I usually laugh. ... When someone says that they are stating a fact: "While I was in office, employment increased by 150,000," or whatever it increased by. Whether or not you can attribute that to what they did is another, much more difficult question. ... And by the way, you don't often hear people say, "I destroyed 150 thousand jobs."

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