5: Cross-country comparisons of wage rates: the Big Mac index

Orley Ashenfelter interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 24 April 2009 Orley Ashenfelter of Princeton University talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about his research comparing wage rates for workers in identical jobs across countries, for which he has collected data from branches of McDonald’s, the fast food restaurant chain, in North and South America, Western and Eastern Europe and the rising economies of Asia. The interview was recorded at the American Economic Association meetings in San Francisco in January 2009.