by Thomas DeLeire

About the author: Thomas DeLeire is an assistant professor at the Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago.

Economists commonly lament public policies that transfer resources to a particular group because such policies ignore the "law of unintended consequences." Economists point out, for example, that the law of unintended consequences is at work when workers'wages fall in response to a mandated increase in benefits or when employment falls in response to an increase in the minimum wage. As Henry Hazlitt said in Economics in One Lesson, "Depth in economics consists in looking for all the consequences of a policy instead of merely resting one's gaze on those immediately visible."

The employment provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) exemplify the law of unintended consequences because those...