I recently expressed some scepticism at a paper showing that the release of the iPhone explained a third or more of the decline in US fertility. So, I was interested to read this new working paper by Gokhan Kumpas (California State University, Los Angeles), which looks at the effect of broadband coverage on fertility. Specifically, Kumpas…
Broadband coverage and rural fertility
Broadband coverage and rural fertility
18 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in econometerics, labour economics, population economics Tags: economics of fertility
Occupational Licensing Around the World
18 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, labour economics, labour supply, occupational regulation, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA
Hartley and Kleiner have a new Fed Minneapolis working paper surveying workers around the world to measure occupational licensing by country. In the United States, occupational licensing has increased substantially over time, so one might expect licensing to rise with income. Their headline result is the opposite: occupational licensing is negatively correlated with GDP per…
Occupational Licensing Around the World
Some Links
17 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, entrepreneurship, history of economic thought, industrial organisation
TweetMarian Tupy disabuses American socialists of their economically ignorant belief that successful entrepreneurs steal their wealth from workers and consumers. Two slices: Early economists, such as James Mill and David Ricardo, theorized that the physical labor exerted to create a good is the real measure of its value. Karl Marx took the concept to its…
Some Links
The Equal Pay Madness Just Got Madder
17 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, economics of regulation, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice Tags: gender wage gap
In my post Equality Act 2010 I discussed the UK’s absolutely insane wage policy: In short, supply and demand have been replaced by judges and labor boards with the authority to deem which jobs are “equal” and therefore should be paid equally….No one is alleging that male and female warehouse workers were paid unequally or…
The Equal Pay Madness Just Got Madder
The Architect of Deception: How Albert Speer Crafted the Myth of the ‘Good Nazi’
17 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, law and economics, war and peace Tags: Nazi Germany, The Holocaust, World War II
Although Albert Speer designed some of Nazi Germany’s most prominent buildings and served as its Minister of Armaments and War Production during World War II, he later claimed to have had no knowledge of the Holocaust. For decades after the fall of the Third Reich, Albert Speer stood as a historical anomaly. While Adolf Hitler’s […]
The Architect of Deception: How Albert Speer Crafted the Myth of the ‘Good Nazi’
The Great Enrichment continues
17 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in economic history, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation Tags: creative destruction, The Great Enrichment
ACT’s High Hopes for Henry
16 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in politics - New Zealand Tags: 2026 general election
One of the rapidly emerging features of the 2026 election is the announcement of candidates carrying a profile from another sphere of activity. New Zealand First started the trend in April with former All Black captain Taine Randell announced as the candidate for Tukituki. He won’t win the seat but will surely be in the […]
ACT’s High Hopes for Henry
The Meaning of “Globalise the Intifada!”
16 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, law and economics, war and peace Tags: free speech, Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, war against terror
Political slogans compress complicated ideas into a few memorable words. Their strength lies in their emotional force, but so does their danger. A slogan can encourage solidarity and peaceful reform, or it can glorify hatred and violence while allowing those who use it to deny responsibility for its consequences. “Globalise the Intifada” belongs firmly in […]
The Meaning of “Globalise the Intifada!”
Was this Corrections case settled to avoid a precedent Crown Law & Human Rights Commission did not want?
15 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of crime, gender, law and economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: sex discrimination
I am fuming. It is 2026 and the rest of the world is unwinding the destructive and nonsensical policies of the trans madness era, and here in New Zealand they are continuing to be embedded. Today, news broke that a female prison officer who now “identifies as a man” has managed not only to extract an apology and a […]
Was this Corrections case settled to avoid a precedent Crown Law & Human Rights Commission did not want?
Why is the PPTA not worried about far-left extremism?
15 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of education, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice
The Press reports: A secondary teachers’ union is hiring an expert to develop guidelines for dealing with the rise in far-right extremism in the classroom. The successful applicant will be paid $10,000 to write “specific advice and guidelines for the membership on dealing with extremism in the classroom”. Do they mean Marxist extremists? I suspect…
Why is the PPTA not worried about far-left extremism?
The political malaise over New Zealand’s low wage problem
15 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in economic growth, macroeconomics, politics - New Zealand
Among prosperous nations, New Zealand is relatively a low-income country. That hurts. In 2024, net national income per capita was 30% higher in Australia, according to the Paris-based OECD. It was only 19% higher on average over the four years to 2019.
The political malaise over New Zealand’s low wage problem
War Is Not Genocide
14 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, International law, laws of war, war and peace Tags: Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, war against terror
The war in Gaza has produced terrible suffering. Many thousands of civilians have been killed, families have been displaced, neighbourhoods have been destroyed, and ordinary life has become almost impossible. None of this should be minimised. But neither should it be assumed that every exceptionally destructive war is therefore a genocide. Words matter, especially words […]
War Is Not Genocide
Tehran Rose: Will Far-Left Influencers Face Charges in Rallying America’s Enemies?
14 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: free speech, Iran, regressive left
Below is my column in The Hill on the controversies involving far-left influencers rallying support for Iranian and anti-American interests.…
Tehran Rose: Will Far-Left Influencers Face Charges in Rallying America’s Enemies?
More academic censorship
14 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, health economics, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights
The FSU released: A peer-reviewed paper by a Māori clinical psychologist has been removed from her profession’s journal on the grounds that keeping it accessible could harm Māori. It was not retracted for error, fraud or misconduct, which are ordinarily the only reasons for such an action. Censorship knows no bounds. How dare she have…
More academic censorship
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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