Why is war so economically costly? Our answer is that modern war lowers output not only by destroying productive factors, but also by making the surviving economy work less efficiently. Using uniquely comprehensive firm-level data collected during Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, we document a dramatic collapse in allocative productivity in Ukraine. To…
The Allocative Cost of War
The Allocative Cost of War
13 Sep 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, defence economics, war and peace Tags: Ukraine
Scott Freeman on the Phillips Curve
13 Sep 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, business cycles, economics of information, history of economic thought, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, Milton Friedman, monetarism, monetary economics, Robert E. Lucas, unemployment
Growth Effects of AI: Modest for a Decade or Two, At Least
13 Sep 2026 Leave a comment
in entrepreneurship Tags: creative destruction
It is of course impossible to predict the effects of new AI technologies on total economic growth in a precise way, but there are strong reasons to believe that the effect will be modest for a decade or two, anyway. Charles Jones Jones explores some of the reasons in “AI and Our Economic Future,” in…
Growth Effects of AI: Modest for a Decade or Two, At Least
9/11 25 years on
12 Sep 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, politics - USA, war and peace Tags: war against terror
I just read this transcript of the call from Todd Beamer on United Airlines Flight 93, and it made me cry. I recall reading it back in 2001, but not since. 9/11 changed the entire world, but it also was about huge personal tragedies for families and friends, and feats of heroism. I also was…
9/11 25 years on
Andy Burnham, the Premiership, and the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829
12 Sep 2026 Leave a comment
in constitutional political economy, economics of bureaucracy, economics of religion, Public Choice Tags: British constitutional law, British politics, Freedom of religion, religious discrimination
Andy Burnham announced today that his constitutional responsibility for advising the Sovereign on ecclesiastical appointments has been transferred to the Lord Chancellor. This was necessary because, as a Roman Catholic, Burnham is barred from tendering this advice by s. 18 of the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829. S. 4 of the Jews Relief Act 1858 […]
Andy Burnham, the Premiership, and the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829
The Pro-Growth Impact of Deregulation
12 Sep 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic growth, economic history, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, macroeconomics Tags: European Union
Regulation adds “clutter” to an economy, sort of akin to creating an obstacle course that workers and businesses have to navigate in order to be productive. In other words, red tape makes it harder to be profitable. And that reduces incentives to invest. And every economic theory agrees that less investment means less prosperity. That’s […]
The Pro-Growth Impact of Deregulation
Bruce D. Smith refutes the quantity theory
12 Sep 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, budget deficits, economic history, history of economic thought, macroeconomics, Milton Friedman, monetarism, monetary economics Tags: quantity theory of money
Mohamed Atta—The Evil Ringleader of the 9/11 Attacks
11 Sep 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, law and economics, laws of war, politics - USA, war and peace Tags: war against terror
Before I get into the story of Mohamed Atta, there is something I need to get off my chest. It appears that in the last few years, there has been a gradual downgrading of acts of terrorism. Terrorists are no longer called terrorists but militants. There are two definitions of a militant:1, Engaged in warfare […]
Mohamed Atta—The Evil Ringleader of the 9/11 Attacks
George W. Bush’s bullhorn speech still echoes, ‘I can hear you! The rest…
11 Sep 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, International law, law and economics, laws of war, politics - USA, war and peace Tags: war against terror
‘Incomplete Contracts and the Theory of Contract Design,’ by Robert Scott and George Triantis
11 Sep 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of information, economics of regulation, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, law and economics, property rights
Economists and lawyers know that almost every contract is incomplete. Contracts routinely omit or leave undefined important terms, and they rarely anticipate every circumstance that might frustrate performance. The reason is simple: It makes little sense to spend $1,000 drafting a provision that has an expected value of only $100. Parties therefore leave lower-value contingencies…
‘Incomplete Contracts and the Theory of Contract Design,’ by Robert Scott and George Triantis
The case for unilateral recognition
11 Sep 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of information, economics of regulation, industrial organisation, international economic law, international economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, regulation
Bilateral, plurilateral, and multilateral are words that New Zealand’s civil service love. There is nothing that can’t be improved by doing it in concert with others. Sometimes there’s good reason for just doing stuff. New Zealand made the right decision when it unilaterally slashed all of its tariffs. It also progressed all the other trade agreements that helped…
The case for unilateral recognition
Poll: Almost 60 Percent of Democrats Have a Favorable View of Socialism
11 Sep 2026 Leave a comment
in economic history, history of economic thought, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA
Recent polls show steady growth in support for socialism among Democrats. A new CBS poll shows how popular it is,…
Poll: Almost 60 Percent of Democrats Have a Favorable View of Socialism
Economic Scenarios for Transformative AI
10 Sep 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic growth, industrial organisation, macroeconomics Tags: creative destruction
By Anton Korinek, Charles I. Jones, Szymon Sacher, Tess Cotter, and Peter McCrory, a strong line-up from Anthropic. They are sober, reasoned, scientific, and (for the most part) dynamically consistent. Here is the paper, here is the abstract: This paper presents a framework for assessing the economic consequences of AI between 2026 and 2030. In…
Economic Scenarios for Transformative AI
They’re anti-immigration, not Nazis
10 Sep 2026 Leave a comment
in income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, politics, Public Choice Tags: Germany
A lot of media reporting on the election result in Saxony-Arnholt. It has two million people and is in former East Germany. Their Parliament is called a Landtag and they just went to the polls. The results so far are: So a huge swing from CDU to AFD. You need 42 seats to govern. The…
They’re anti-immigration, not Nazis
Did the Sewing Machine Reduce the Workload for Women?
10 Sep 2026 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economic growth, economic history, economics of education, gender, history of economic thought, human capital, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, occupational choice, poverty and inequality, technological progress Tags: creative destruction, The Great Enrichment
Is new technology that replaces a worker a good thing? We have a tendency, it seems to me, to believe that most previous inventions turned out to have overall net social benefits, but to be worried that all future inventions will instead have overall net social costs. Philipp Ager and Davide Coluccia tackle the question of…
Did the Sewing Machine Reduce the Workload for Women?
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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