The last word on Piketty: Deirdre McCloskey, John McTernan, Chris Giles Panel
29 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, poverty and inequality Tags: Deidre McCloskey, Piketty
Gary Becker: Fear, Technology, & Education
28 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Gary Becker, technological progress Tags: Gary Becker
Million dollar taxi licenses under pressure from Uber at last
28 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, economics of regulation, industrial organisation Tags: rent seeking, taxi regulation, Uber
Treat scientific advice on global warming like advice from your doctor
28 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, environmental economics, global warming Tags: climate alarmism, cost benefit analysis, evidence-based policy, global warming
1. Physicians may not agree on the medical condition causing the symptoms the patient presents.
2. Even if physicians agree on their diagnoses, they often do not agree on the efficacy of alternative responses — for example, surgery or medical management for lower-back pain.
3. The reason patients seek advice and treatment is that they expect physicians to have vastly superior knowledge about the proper diagnosis and efficacy of treatment.
4. Medicine proceeds on the basis of double blind trials and other small field experiments. Control and treatment groups are used before any treatment is applied widely.
5. Medicine is not perfect as was the case with the misdiagnosis of the causes of stomach ulcers.
6. The lag between cause and effect are short as would be the case if you rejected emergency treatment after a car accident or cancer treatment.
7. Medicine tests the efficacy of invasive treatments, weighs side-effects and encourages adaptation and prevention.
8. The staying power of self-interest in medicine is well-known: much higher rates of surgery when there is fee for service and much lower rates of surgery if the patient is a doctor or his partner. The efforts of the medical profession to suppress competition is well-known.
Armen Alchian on the difference between market equilibrium and market clearing
28 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
Richard A. Posner: Wire Trap | New Republic
27 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of crime, law and economics, liberalism, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, war and peace Tags: Richard Poser, terrorism
Kenneth Boulding on what is fundamental to all analysis, including economic analysis
26 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
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