Steven Landsburg on the difference between an absurdity and a lie about Obamacare
20 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, health economics, politics - USA
David Friedman on the costs and benefits of prevention and adaptation to global warming
20 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
.@cgiarclimate Debate on climate change always neglect crucial role of CO2 in agriculture @ifadnews @careemergencies http://t.co/Y3Du5YnF56—
Golden Rice Now (@paulevans18) July 17, 2015
Nicholas Kristof – Where Sweatshops Are a Dream
20 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, development economics, growth disasters, growth miracles, international economic law Tags: child labour, developing countries, Labour standards, neocolonialism
Before Barack Obama and his team act on their talk about “labor standards,” I’d like to offer them a tour of the vast garbage dump here in Phnom Penh.
This is a Dante-like vision of hell. It’s a mountain of festering refuse, a half-hour hike across, emitting clouds of smoke from subterranean fires. The miasma of toxic stink leaves you gasping, breezes batter you with filth, and even the rats look forlorn.
Then the smoke parts and you come across a child ambling barefoot, searching for old plastic cups that recyclers will buy for five cents a pound. Many families actually live in shacks on this smoking garbage.
Mr. Obama and the Democrats who favor labor standards in trade agreements mean well, for they intend to fight back at oppressive sweatshops abroad.
But while it shocks Americans to hear it, the central challenge in the poorest countries is not that sweatshops exploit too many people, but that they don’t exploit enough.
Talk to these families in the dump, and a job in a sweatshop is a cherished dream, an escalator out of poverty, the kind of gauzy if probably unrealistic ambition that parents everywhere often have for their children.
via Op-Ed Columnist – Where Sweatshops Are a Dream – NYTimes.com.
Jon Stewart demolishes Gruber and the Democrats on Obamacare
20 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, economics, economics of regulation, health economics, politics - USA Tags: health insurance, Jon Stewart, Obamacare
Thomas Sowell (former Marxist) Dismantles Leftist Ideology
19 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, liberalism Tags: Leftover Left, progressivism, Thomas Sowell
Operations Research and The Revolution in Aggregate Economics – Edward Prescott 2012
18 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, business cycles, economic growth, fiscal policy, global financial crisis (GFC), great depression, great recession, macroeconomics Tags: Edward Prescott, real business cycle theory
The extension of recursive methods to dynamic equilibrium modelling spawned a revolution in aggregate economics.
This revolution has resulted in aggregate economics becoming, like physics, a hard science and not exercises in storytelling.
Operations research played a major role in the development of practical methods to model dynamic aggregate economic phenomena and to predict the consequences of policy regimes.
Subsequently recursive methods were used to develop a quantitative theory of aggregate fluctuations and other aggregate phenomena.
Offsetting behaviour alert: KiwiSaver and the Accumulation of Net Wealth (WP 14/22) — The Treasury
18 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, economics of regulation, financial economics Tags: KiwiSaver, offsetting behaviour
Abstract
The objective of this paper is to analyse the extent to which membership of KiwiSaver has been associated with greater accumulations of net wealth.
The paper utilises two linked sources of data which cover the period 2002 to 2010: Statistics New Zealand’s Survey of Family, Income and Employment and Inland Revenue Department administrative data on KiwiSaver membership.
Two approaches are employed: difference-in-differences (where the outcomes of interest are changes in net wealth) and various panel regression techniques.
Results appear consistent with earlier evaluations of KiwiSaver. Neither approach suggests KiwiSaver membership has been associated with any positive effect on net wealth accumulation.
via KiwiSaver and the Accumulation of Net Wealth (WP 14/22) — The Treasury – New Zealand.
A Conversation with Gary Becker: The Future of US Economic Policy
18 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, Gary Becker Tags: Gary Becker
Sam Peltzman radio interview
17 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, business cycles, economics of regulation, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, law and economics, liberalism, macroeconomics, Sam Peltzman Tags: Sam Peltzman
What if We’re Looking at Inequality the Wrong Way? – NYTimes.com
16 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, entrepreneurship, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, liberalism, Marxist economics, occupational choice, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, public economics, Rawls and Nozick, technological progress Tags: Piketty, poverty and inequality
Europe’s dismal economy
15 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, business cycles, Euro crisis, global financial crisis (GFC), great recession, macroeconomics Tags: Euroland, Euros crisis
BEER HISTORIES: The ‘six o’clock swill’
13 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, economics of regulation Tags: alcohol regulation, drinking and driving, economics of regulation, offsetting behaviour
Legal bar closing times in England and Wales have historically been early and uniform.
Recent legislation liberalised closing times with the object of reducing social problems thought associated with drinking to “beat the clock.”
Colin P. Green, John S. Heywood and Maria Navarro (2013) showed that one consequence of this liberalization was a decrease in traffic accidents. This decrease was concentrated heavily among younger drivers. The effect was most pronounced in the hours of the week directly affected by the liberalization; late nights and early mornings on weekends.
On May 1, 1996, Ontario, Canada, amended the Liquor Licence Act to extend the hours of alcohol sales and service in licensed establishments from 1 AM to 2 AM.
Guest Blogger: Stephanie Gibson, Curator Contemporary Life & Culture Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
Many New Zealanders will remember the years of six o’clock closing of pubs. Urban pubs were often overcrowded, charmless places, where binge drinking took place in a race against the clock, resulting in the infamous ‘six o’clock swill’. Until the 1960s, alcohol could only be sold and consumed publicly in licensed places that provided accommodation. These were known as public hotels or ‘pubs’ for short.
In October 1917 New Zealand became the only country in the world to impose a nation-wide ban on the sale of liquor after six o’clock. Many believed that restricted access would result in less drinking. The ban lasted for 50 years until October 1967, when closing was brought forward to 10 o’clock by public vote.
Glassware, mid-1960s, by Crown Crystal Glass, New Zealand
(GH021024-25, GH023164, GH024221, Te Papa)
Standardised…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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