*The Case Against Education* Makes the WSJ
01 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economics of education, economics of information, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality Tags: screening, signaling
Douglas Belkin, who has an admirably adversarial publication record on higher ed, spotlights my The Case Against Education in his latest piece in The Wall Street Journal:One result of this transactional attitude has been a sharp increase in cheating. College is one of the few products whose consumers try to get as little out of…
*The Case Against Education* Makes the WSJ
Life is full of tradeoffs: it costs money to keep chemicals out of our water systems
27 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, economics of regulation, health economics
See Who Pays to Get Forever Chemicals Out of Drinking Water? It Could Be You: Officials say settlements with 3M and DuPont won’t cover all of the costs of building new filtration systems by John Keilman and Kris Maher of The WSJ. Excerpts:”Water systems are spending millions of dollars to filter out PFAS, the long-lasting compounds…
Life is full of tradeoffs: it costs money to keep chemicals out of our water systems
Quotation of the Day…
24 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, history of economic thought, international economics
Tweet… is from page 4 of the 1976 second edition of my late, great teacher Leland Yeager’s magisterial International Monetary Relations: Theory, History, and Policy (original emphases; footnote deleted): Our opportunity for gain is genuine regardless of why foreigners sell so cheaply. Perhaps the foreign widgets are cheap because the climate is ideal for their…
Quotation of the Day…
Will Milei succeed in Argentina?
22 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, budget deficits, comparative institutional analysis, development economics, economic growth, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, fiscal policy, growth disasters, income redistribution, labour economics, liberalism, libertarianism, macroeconomics, Marxist economics, monetary economics, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking Tags: Argentina
I give him a 30-40% chance, which is perhaps generous because I am rooting for him. Bryan Caplan, who is more optimistic, offers some analysis and estimates that Milei needs to close a fiscal gap of about five percent of gdp. I have two major worries. First, if Milei approaches fiscal success, the opposing parties […]
Will Milei succeed in Argentina?
Shift to renewable energy would make economic growth impossible, says expert
22 Jan 2024 1 Comment
in applied price theory, development economics, economic growth, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, macroeconomics Tags: climate alarmism
By Paul Homewood h/t Philip Bratby Even climatologists are beginning to realise that the emperor has no clothes! Economic growth as we know it is impossible if governments shift to 100 per cent renewable energy, a renowned French climatologist has said. Jean-Marc Jancovici, the author of World Without End, the […]
Shift to renewable energy would make economic growth impossible, says expert
Milei Speaks Truth to WEF Elite Power
19 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic growth, economic history, entrepreneurship, growth disasters, growth miracles, history of economic thought, labour economics, law and economics, macroeconomics, property rights Tags: Argentina
Argentina’s President Javier Milei had a warning for those attending the annual WEF meeting in Davos, Switzerland; ‘the Western world is in danger’ from ‘collectivist experiments’ such as Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), and has called on the world to reject socialism and instead embrace “free enterprise capitalism” to end global poverty. H/T zerohedge “Today, […]
Milei Speaks Truth to WEF Elite Power
Unfettered: Fishback 25 Years Later
17 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, economic history, economics of information, economics of regulation, health and safety, history of economic thought, human capital, industrial organisation, international economics, labour economics, labour supply, liberalism, macroeconomics, Marxist economics, minimum wage, occupational choice, occupational regulation, poverty and inequality, unemployment, unions
A quarter century ago, economist Price Fishback published “Operations of ‘Unfettered’ Labor Markets: Exit and Voice in American Labor Markets at the Turn of the Century” in the prestigious Journal of Economic Literature. Fishback’s article is packed with insight… and understatement. But let’s back up. Virtually every standard history textbook describes U.S. labor markets before…
Unfettered: Fishback 25 Years Later
Deirdre McCloskey: What Is Classical Liberalism? | Robinson’s Podcast #145
17 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, economic history, economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, history of economic thought, law and economics, liberalism, libertarianism, Marxist economics, political change, Public Choice, public economics
The Right and Wrong Way to Reduce Poverty, Part II
16 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, human capital, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, public economics, welfare reform Tags: child poverty, family poverty
In Part I of this series, I explained that the War on Poverty, launched by Lyndon Johnson and expanded by other profligate presidents, has been bad news for both taxpayers and poor people. More specifically, I shared some academic research showing how it led to a big increase in dependency on government. Let’s expand on […]
The Right and Wrong Way to Reduce Poverty, Part II
Family leave and the gender wage gap
16 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, econometerics, economic history, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality Tags: economics of fertility, family leave, gender wage gap, marriage and divorce, sex discrimination
The gender wage gap has been decreasing slowly and steadily over time. At least, that’s what I thought until I read this 2023 NBER Working Paper by Peter Blair (Harvard University) and Benjamin Posmanick (St. Bonaventure University). They present the following graph of the gender wage gap in the US (for White women, compared with White men,…
Family leave and the gender wage gap
Professional Sports and the Lack of Local Economic Payoffs
15 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, econometerics, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking, sports economics, urban economics
I’m a sports fan, which in this case may represent a conflict of interest, because it means I’m conflicted about public subsidies going to sports stadiums. The economic evidence on this point is pretty clear: such subsidies can transfer how people spend their entertainment dollars from one area of a city to another, but the net…
Professional Sports and the Lack of Local Economic Payoffs
What Economics Gets Wrong Today – David Friedman | Podcast EP 29
15 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, David Friedman, economic history, economics of crime, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, history of economic thought, law and economics, liberalism, libertarianism, market efficiency, Marxist economics, Milton Friedman, property rights
Even More Evidence Against Minimum Wage Laws
13 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of regulation, labour economics, labour supply Tags: minimum wage
As explained by public intellectuals such as Milton Friedman, Johan Norberg, John Stossel, and Orphe Divougny, the argument against minimum wage requirements is very simple. If politicians dictate that people can’t be employed unless they receive, say, $15 per hour, then workers who are worth less than than amount (because of low skills, no experience, […]
Even More Evidence Against Minimum Wage Laws
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