Bryan Caplan will feel vindicated: This paper asks whether universal pre-kindergarten (UPK) raises parents’ earnings and how much these earnings effects matter for evaluating the economic returns to UPK programs. Using a randomized lottery design, we estimate the effects of enrolling in a full-day UPK program in New Haven, Connecticut on parents’ labor market outcomes […]
Further evidence for the babysitting theory of education
Further evidence for the babysitting theory of education
08 Oct 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, economics of education, economics of love and marriage, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics Tags: economics of fertility
US Productivity Growth: Downside, Upside
08 Oct 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economic growth, economic history, entrepreneurship, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics Tags: The Great Enrichment
Over time, a rising US standard of living is driven by productivity growth. Michael Peters succinctly describes the problem in “America Must Rediscover Its Dynamism” (Finance & Development, September 2024). He writes: The US economy has a multitrillion-dollar problem. It’s the dramatic slowdown in productivity growth over the past couple of decades. Between 1947 and…
US Productivity Growth: Downside, Upside
The NZ Treasury’s Lack of Imagination Threatens our Future. It has no faith in Economic Magic (Einstein did).
07 Oct 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, health economics, labour economics, labour supply, poverty and inequality, public economics, welfare reform Tags: retirement savings
Our Treasury is at it again. Telling Kiwis a bleak future awaits them, especially in retirement. Its latest report about how NZ Demographic Change will affect the Country’s Finances is enough make the PM’s eyes glaze over, Finance Minister Willis fall asleep, NZ First leader Peters to press Delete on his laptop & everyone else…
The NZ Treasury’s Lack of Imagination Threatens our Future. It has no faith in Economic Magic (Einstein did).
On the price of Ozempic
07 Oct 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of regulation, health economics, industrial organisation
That is the topic of my latest Bloomberg column, here is one excerpt: As for consumer prices for the current obesity drugs, they are not as high as is often reported, once the various ways to get a discount are taken into account. Despite reports that the drugs cost $1,000 per month, the reality is more favorable. […]
On the price of Ozempic
Peer Approval to Address Drug Shortages
02 Oct 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of regulation, health economics, politics - USA Tags: drug lags
Reuters: Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drug Company said…that it is working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to import and distribute penicillin in the country temporarily….Cuban’s Cost Plus will import Lentocilin brand penicillin powder marketed by Portugal-based Laboratórios Atral S.A. There are two remarkable items in the above passage. First, there is a shortage…
Peer Approval to Address Drug Shortages
Inquiring into banking
02 Oct 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, financial economics, macroeconomics, monetary economics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice Tags: monetary policy competition law
Hard on the heels of the Commerce Commission’s inquiry into some aspects of banking competition, Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee is also holding an inquiry. Submissions weren’t open for very long and have now closed, but the full terms of reference are here. It is a select committee inquiry, so it is hard to be […]
Inquiring into banking
Canada Is Part of the Anti-Convergence Club
01 Oct 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, budget deficits, comparative institutional analysis, economic growth, economic history, economics of regulation, environmental economics, fiscal policy, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, macroeconomics, property rights Tags: Canada
Economists widely agree with the theory of “convergence,” which is the (mostly true) idea that poor nations should grow faster than rich nations as they catch up (converge). But there are exceptions. Sometimes a richer country will grow faster than a poorer country over a significant period of time, and we can learn from these examples. This is […]
Canada Is Part of the Anti-Convergence Club
Creative destruction again
28 Sep 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, managerial economics, occupational choice, organisational economics, personnel economics Tags: creative destruction, economics of pandemics
Another zero lower bound prediction bites the dust
28 Sep 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, budget deficits, business cycles, economic growth, fiscal policy, history of economic thought, labour economics, macroeconomics, monetary economics, public economics, unemployment Tags: New Keynesian macroeconomics
Popular New Keynesian macroeconomic models predict that cuts in various types of distortionary taxes are contractionary when monetary policy is constrained at the zero lower bound. We turn to a long span of history in the United Kingdom to test this hypothesis. Using a new long-run dataset of narrative-identified tax changes from 1918to 2020, we […]
Another zero lower bound prediction bites the dust
Debunking Hate-and-Envy Tax Policy
27 Sep 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic growth, economic history, entrepreneurship, financial economics, fiscal policy, health and safety, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, macroeconomics, occupational choice, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, property rights, Public Choice, public economics Tags: envy, regressive left, taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment
On tax policy, our friends on the left are motivated by envy and hatred. As shown in this Stossel video, Robert Reich is a sad example of this mindset. John Stossel understates his argument. It’s not that Reich is wrong. He’s wildly wrong. There are four points in the video that deserve attention. It is […]
Debunking Hate-and-Envy Tax Policy
After 30 years, there is hope
27 Sep 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, environmental economics, environmentalism, income redistribution, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking, transport economics, urban economics Tags: housing affordability, land supply, zoning
Chris Bishop and Simon Court announced: Two new laws will be developed to replace the Resource Management Act (RMA), with the enjoyment of property rights as their guiding principle, RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Parliamentary Under-Secretary Simon Court say. “The RMA was passed with good intentions in 1991 but has proved a failure in […]
After 30 years, there is hope
Should we keep the wealthy non-diversified? (from my email)
27 Sep 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, entrepreneurship, history of economic thought, human capital, income redistribution, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, liberalism, Marxist economics, occupational choice, poverty and inequality, Public Choice Tags: top 1%
Byrne Hobart writes to me: One of the purposes of inheritance taxes is to avoid compounding intergenerational wealth. But The Missing Billionaires points out that if all of America’s millionaires had put their money in broad market indices in 1900, their heirs would number 16,000 billionaires, even accounting for taxes, splitting estates among multiple children, etc. So […]
Should we keep the wealthy non-diversified? (from my email)
The high cost of free insurance
24 Sep 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of bureaucracy, economics of information, economics of regulation, environmental economics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, public economics, urban economics Tags: unintended consequences
Eric Crampton writes – Government sometimes cannot stop itself from providing bailouts when risk-taking goes wrong. This kind of ‘free’ insurance policy leads to no end of bad outcomes.
The high cost of free insurance
Why the Fed Cut Sent Stocks Soaring
23 Sep 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, entrepreneurship, financial economics, macroeconomics, monetary economics Tags: monetary policy
When rates go low, future profits go high. Everyone wants a cutBy Richard B. McKenzie. Excerpt:”Profits in the future, dollar for dollar, are worth less than current dollars. This is because current profits can earn interest between now and the future, which means that future profits must be discounted by some percentage to make them…
Why the Fed Cut Sent Stocks Soaring
Historian Anthony Comegna reviews Marc-William Palen’s book Pax Economica: Left-Wing Visions of a Free Trade World
23 Sep 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, development economics, history of economic thought, international economics Tags: economics of colonialism, free trade, tariffs
See When Leftists Were Free Traders: In Pax Economica, historian Marc-William Palen chronicles the left-wing history of free trade. From Reason magazine.Dr. Marc-William Palen is a historian at the University of Exeter. His Ph. D. is from The University of Texas.The review is very good. Here is the Amazon link for the book: Pax Economica:…
Historian Anthony Comegna reviews Marc-William Palen’s book Pax Economica: Left-Wing Visions of a Free Trade World
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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