Like many who do business in California, I often complain about the regulatory burden (free at last!) People will ask, “So what one regulation would you get rid of?” The problem is that this is a really hard question to answer because in most cases it is not any one regulation in particular, but the…
The Accumulation of Regulation
The Accumulation of Regulation
21 Feb 2025 1 Comment
in applied price theory, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice, regulation Tags: employment law
The Spectacular Economic Ignorance of Peter Navarro
20 Feb 2025 1 Comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, international economics, labour economics, labour supply, survivor principle, unemployment Tags: 2024 presidential election, free trade, tarrifs
TweetHere’s a letter to the New York Times. Editor: Encountering, in David Leonhardt’s report, a summary of Peter Navarro’s attempted justifications of Trump’s tariffs makes the head spin (“A Disagreement on Tariffs,” February 18). Navarro’s arguments are so illogical, self-contradictory, and economically ignorant that they’d be merely laughable were he not an advisor to the…
The Spectacular Economic Ignorance of Peter Navarro
Selfishly Speaking, Who Should Skip College?
20 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of education, economics of information, human capital, James Buchanan, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice Tags: adverse selection, asymmetric information, College premium, signaling
The central thesis of my The Case Against Education is that actually-existing education is a terrible waste of taxpayer money. Since signaling, not building human capital, is the main function of education, the main effect of government subsidies is credential inflation. In economic jargon, my claim is that education has a low (indeed, negative) social…
Selfishly Speaking, Who Should Skip College?
Effects of the minimum wage on the nonprofit sector
19 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economic history, labour economics, labour supply, minimum wage
After a few days of ‘rest’ (by which I really mean some intensely long work days), I’m going to pick up again on my recent series of posts about the minimum wage (see here for the most recent post), but returning to more familiar ground – the disemployment effects of the minimum wage. The story…
Effects of the minimum wage on the nonprofit sector
Trump Officially Ends Biden-Era War On American Appliances
17 Feb 2025 1 Comment
in applied price theory, economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, liberalism, politics - USA Tags: 2024 presidential election, climate activists, climate alarmism
“In recent years, burdensome and ideologically motivated regulations have impeded the development of these resources, limited the generation of reliable and affordable electricity, reduced job creation, and inflicted high energy costs upon our citizens,” Trump stated in the executive order. “These high energy costs devastate American consumers by driving up the cost of transportation, heating, utilities, farming, and manufacturing, while weakening our national security.”
Trump Officially Ends Biden-Era War On American Appliances
Must watch – Gigi Foster on lockdowns at PAEC
17 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, econometerics, economics of natural disasters, health economics, politics - Australia Tags: economics of pandemics
Minimum Wages, Efficiency, and Welfare
17 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, econometerics, labour economics, labour supply, minimum wage
Recently Alex raised some doubts, to say the least, about the Card-Krueger view of minimum wage hikes. Well, it turns out there is more, and a new consensus is on the verge of forming. Here are David Berger, Kyle Herkenhoff, and Simon Mongey, from a new Econometrica piece: Many argue that minimum wages can prevent efficiency […]
Minimum Wages, Efficiency, and Welfare
How employers respond to minimum wage increases
15 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, labour economics, labour supply, minimum wage, unemployment Tags: offsetting behavior, unintended consequences
In yesterday’s post, I made reference to this 2021 article by Jeffrey Clemens (University of California at San Diego), published in the Journal of Economic Perspectives (open access). Clemens puts forward an interesting perspective on the debate about the observed employment impacts of the minimum wage (or lack thereof):…I contend that controversies over the economics of minimum wages…
How employers respond to minimum wage increases
David Friedman on consequences of climate change 2023
13 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, David Friedman, economic history, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, Ronald Coase
Cordon Pricing Makes New York Congestion Worse
13 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, transport economics, urban economics Tags: cordon pricing
Early reports claim that New York City’s so-called congestion pricing program is a great success, reducing the number of vehicles driving into lower Manhattan by 5 to 6 percent. However, because it really isn’t congestion pricing — that is, it doesn’t price roads by how much congestion there is but … Continue reading →
Cordon Pricing Makes New York Congestion Worse
The economic impact of the 2000 Sydney Olympics
13 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, sports economics Tags: Olympic Games
Economic impact studies are typically used to justify large sporting events. However, those studies typically apply a set of overly positive assumptions, leading to large overestimates of economic impact. Andrew Zimbalist even wrote a book about this problem, Circus Maximus (which I reviewed here).Now, it is rare for the authors of an economic impact study to go…
The economic impact of the 2000 Sydney Olympics
The long road to housing affordability
11 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, income redistribution, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking, transport economics, urban economics Tags: housing affordability, land supply, zoning
There is much work yet to be done in New Zealand to improve housing affordability, despite recent declines in valuations. Eric Crampton writes – It wasn’t that long ago that New Zealand’s housing market made international news because of its insanity. In 2016, The Guardian tagged Auckland as the “hottest property market in the world” […]
The long road to housing affordability
Does the Gender Wage Gap Actually Reflect Taste Discrimination Against Women?
11 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, econometerics, economics of education, economics of information, economics of media and culture, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply Tags: gender wage gap
One explanation of the gender wage gap is taste discrimination, as in Becker (1957). We test for taste discrimination by constructing a novel measure of misogyny using Google Trends data on searches that include derogatory terms for women. We find—surprisingly, in our view—that misogyny is an economically meaningful and statistically significant predictor of the wage […]
Does the Gender Wage Gap Actually Reflect Taste Discrimination Against Women?
Alex and I consider how to reform the NSF in economics
10 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of education, entrepreneurship Tags: creative destruction, R&D
Here is a redux of our 2016 Journal of Economic Perspectives piece. Here is the abstract: We can imagine a plausible case for government support of science based on traditional economic reasons of externalities and public goods. Yet when it comes to government support of grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for economic research, […]
Alex and I consider how to reform the NSF in economics
Goldilocks and the Laffer Curve
09 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, budget deficits, economic growth, entrepreneurship, fiscal policy, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, politics - USA, public economics Tags: taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment, taxation and labour supply
Other than Art Laffer, I think of myself as the world’s biggest advocate of the Laffer Curve. I’ve literally written hundreds of columns explaining and promoting the concept. My goal is to help people understand that there is not a linear relationship between tax rates and tax revenue. Why is this the case? Because when […]
Goldilocks and the Laffer Curve
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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