Deirdre McCloskey on the axiom of goodwill in public policy making in left-wing circles
06 Oct 2014 Leave a comment
Arthur Pigou on comparative institutional analysis
04 Oct 2014 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis Tags: Arthur Pigou, government failure, market failure, public choice
Comparative institutional analysis, market failure, government
Cass Sunstein finally admits that regulators are people too, and like the rest of us, they are just as fallible
03 Oct 2014 Leave a comment
Hankos take the place of signatures in Japan
02 Oct 2014 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis Tags: Hanko, Japan
Instead of signing their name, Japanese stamp their name on forms, bank withdrawal slips and letters with a hanko (a signature stamp).
Without a hanko one can’t open a bank account in Japan or register for a university class. One professor told the Los Angeles Times, "I don’t exist in this society without my hanko."
Hankos are cylinders about the size of a piece of chalk. They have the person’s name carved at one end in Chinese characters and they leave an imprint after being stamped in ink.
Everyone from the Emperor to a homeless man living in a park has a hanko, and they are used for everything from finalizing a multi-million-dollar business deal to signing for packages delivered to one’s house.
The average Japanese has five hankos but only one is registered with the government to certify ownership and it is only used on important documents. Since these seals are considered too valuable to carry around, people have other seals to use for things like bank transactions and taking deliveries. A certificate of authenticity is required for any hanko used in a significant business transaction.
Many government documents have several hanko stamps. According to one estimate, typical bureaucrats puts his hanko on 100,000 documents in a 25 year career.
When I had a bank account in Japan, my hanko was the letters JR inside a circle. Anyone who stole that hanko could run of with my bank account balance. This did worry me and my friends at the International house . Anyone can go to a shop at the train station and get a hanko made with my initials on it.
Consider the sheer number of transactions and people involved in economic arrangements
30 Sep 2014 Leave a comment
Bill Easterly on the great dangers of evidence-based policy and field trials
28 Sep 2014 Leave a comment
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