Bob Edlin writes – News has reached Professor Jerry Coyne of the New Zealand Parliament debating a bill (which passed on its first reading) that would legally define a “man” and a “woman” this way: 13A Meaning of woman or female In any legislation, regardless of gender identity,— (a) woman means an adult human biological […]
Coyne is keeping an eye on the legislation to define women and men
Coyne is keeping an eye on the legislation to define women and men
10 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in discrimination, gender, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: sex discrimination
Capital Gains Can Be Labor Income
10 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, fiscal policy, macroeconomics, Public Choice, public economics Tags: taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment, top 1%
Zwick and Zidar argue that a substantial share of the decline in labor share can be accounted for by changing forms of pay, including pass-throughs and equtiy compensation. In particular, if an employee is paid in stock and that stock increases in value then the tax rules tend to count some of that as capital…
Capital Gains Can Be Labor Income
How does an MP resign? The Chiltern Hundreds & the Manor of Northstead
09 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in economic history Tags: British constitutional law
Have you just heard that an MP has resigned by ‘taking the Chiltern Hundreds’? Our Senior Research Fellow, Dr Martin Spychal, explains the practice and explores its historical context… MPs are not allowed to resign from Parliament. However, a parliamentary loophole exists that allows an MP to vacate their seat by asking the chancellor of…
How does an MP resign? The Chiltern Hundreds & the Manor of Northstead
Scientists on sex
09 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in health economics, politics - New Zealand
The Ad Hoc Working Group on sex denialism has submitted on the Legislation (Definitions of Woman and Man) Amendment Bill. Their stance is neither for nor against the Bill, it is to clarify the science.
Scientists on sex
Missing women on Indian streets
09 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, development economics, discrimination, econometerics, economics of crime, gender, growth miracles, law and economics Tags: sex discrimination
How absent are women from city streets in the developing world? We answer this question using GPS-linked wearable cameras and randomized street audits across ~900 kilometers of roads in greater Mumbai. Across 4000+ street images containing 23,000+ visible person observations, women account for 16.4% of visible people in Mumbai and 14.7% in Navi Mumbai, far…
Missing women on Indian streets
David Freidman An Economist’s Case for Liberty
08 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in David Friedman, law and economics, libertarianism
Prince Harry and the Hypocrisy of Privacy
08 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in law and economics, property rights Tags: British politics
Prince Harry has suffered a significant defeat in his privacy action against Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mail. The case was brought by Harry and several other well-known figures, who alleged that the newspaper group had obtained private information through unlawful methods including phone tapping, voicemail interception and deception. The High Court dismissed the […]
Prince Harry and the Hypocrisy of Privacy
The Court martial of Jackie Robinson.
08 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, discrimination, economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA, war and peace Tags: racial discrimination, World War II
Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American professional baseball second baseman who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era.Robinson broke the baseball color line when the Brooklyn Dodgers started him at first base on April 15, 1947. The Dodgers, by signing Robinson, heralded the end of racial segregation in professional baseball that had relegated black players to […]
The Court martial of Jackie Robinson.
Civilian supersonic flights are being legalized in the U.S.
08 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, politics - USA, transport economics
For too long, outdated rules based on old technology held back American aerospace innovation. Now, we are updating those rules for the first time since the 1970s. Today @USDOT announced a new proposal to enable civil supersonic flight by replacing speed limits with noise limits, ushering in a new era of safer, quieter, and faster air travel…
Civilian supersonic flights are being legalized in the U.S.
What Is Personalized Pricing—and Why Are Lawmakers Scrambling to Ban It?
07 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
Companies already track your every move online. Some researchers say it is only a matter of time until retailers start using that data to set prices just for you.By Jackie Snow of The WSJ.The print edition titled this article “How to Prevent Personalized Pricing.” This sounds like a form of price discrimination, which I will…
What Is Personalized Pricing—and Why Are Lawmakers Scrambling to Ban It?
The Troubled History of Government Equity in Technology
07 Jul 2026 1 Comment
in applied price theory, economic history, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, privatisation, Public Choice, rentseeking, survivor principle Tags: creative destruction, Germany
Even though Germany privatized Deutsche Telekom in 1996, the federal government retained a substantial ownership stake. This partial state ownership status, which remains to this day, presents a textbook example of how this type of arrangement distorts incentives and delays the competitive dynamism necessary for technological progress. Through the late 1990s and into the 2000s, Deutsche Telekom…
The Troubled History of Government Equity in Technology
The Fall of Josh Shapiro: Pennsylvania Governor Collapses on the Political Waterfront
06 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in politics - USA Tags: constitutional law
Below is my column in Fox.com on the recent decision of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro to join the ranks of…
The Fall of Josh Shapiro: Pennsylvania Governor Collapses on the Political Waterfront
Do falling birth rates boost per capita income?
06 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economic growth, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics Tags: economics of fertility
The secular decline in birth rates across the globe over the past seven decades has slowed population growth, raised average ages, and reshaped labor markets and the macroeconomy. Contrary to the widespread expectation that these trends hamper economic growth, we find lower birth rates are associated with higher growth in GDP per working-age adult across…
Do falling birth rates boost per capita income?
Survey: Democrats Turning Heavily in Favor of Socialism
05 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in Marxist economics, politics - USA
For many of us who were raised in liberal, Democratic families, the infusion of socialist, anti-free-speech, and anti-Semitic elements into…
Survey: Democrats Turning Heavily in Favor of Socialism
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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