Some of the most careful and convincing empirical research on the employment effects of minimum wages has been done by David Neumark and William Wascher.

FORBES: Resources on the Minimum Wage

One of the few empirical research studies on the subject, published in 1990, found that when groups of employees received a 15 percent pay cut, theft increased.

FORBES: Pay Employees More and They'll Steal Less

Unfortunately, most of the empirical research on whether immigrants make natives worse off in practice is also inconclusive except that the effect, one way or the other, seems small.

ECONOMIST: Workers of the world | The

Whatever you think about their approach, the Nobel committee has decided to honour Sargent and Sims for their "empirical research on cause and effect in the macroeconomy".

BBC: The Nobel prize, and the ONS