Mancur Olson’s The Rise and Decline of Nations is one of my favorite books and a classic of public choice. Olson may well have won the Nobel prize had he not died young. He summarized his book in nine implications of which I will present four: 2. Stable societies with unchanged boundaries tend to accumulate […]
The Rise and Decline and Rise Again of Mancur Olson
The Rise and Decline and Rise Again of Mancur Olson
09 May 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic history, growth disasters, growth miracles, history of economic thought, income redistribution, industrial organisation, law and economics, property rights, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking
Conversations that Matter: Is 2050 a Realistic Net-Zero Goal?
29 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, development economics, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, growth miracles Tags: climate alarmism
Why the Global Free Market Will Save the World
23 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic growth, economic history, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, growth disasters, growth miracles, health economics, history of economic thought, income redistribution, labour economics, law and economics, liberalism, macroeconomics, Marxist economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, property rights, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking Tags: anticapitalist mentality, capitalism and freedom
New coal plants in China ‘soar’, dismaying climate worriers
12 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in development economics, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, growth miracles Tags: China
Obsessing about Chinese coal power, and its imagined effect on air temperatures, doesn’t stop the same people doing the obsessing from buying Chinese products made using that power, such as wind turbines, batteries and solar panels. – – – China ramped up coal power capacity last year, according to new analysis, despite a pledge to […]
New coal plants in China ‘soar’, dismaying climate worriers
Deirdre McCloskey: Innovation Begins in Our Minds
09 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic history, entrepreneurship, growth miracles, history of economic thought
Productivity Syndrome and the Investment Prescription
30 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, development economics, economic growth, economic history, growth miracles, history of economic thought, human capital, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics
Economic productivity is about growing the size of the pie. I sometimes point out that no matter what your goal–spending increases, tax cuts, greater support for the poor, environmental protection–that goal is easier when the economic pie is growing. When the economic pie isn’t growing, after all, then all priorities have to pit potential winners…
Productivity Syndrome and the Investment Prescription
India Power Sector In 2023
19 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in development economics, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, growth disasters, growth miracles
By Paul Homewood India’s thermal power production continues to forge ahead, growing by 9% last year, from 1190 to 1294 TWh. Meanwhile there has been barely any increase at all in their much vaunted renewables. Wind and solar only increased by 16 TWh in the 10 months to October (latest data), and still […]
India Power Sector In 2023
The RCT Agenda
12 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, development economics, econometerics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of education, economics of information, economics of regulation, experimental economics, growth disasters, growth miracles, history of economic thought, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, managerial economics, market efficiency, Marxist economics, occupational choice, organisational economics, property rights, Public Choice, public economics Tags: The fatal conceit
Randomized Controlled Trials: Could you be any more scientific? The book I’m now writing, Unbeatable: The Brutally Honest Case for Free Markets, insists that the randomistas of the economics profession actually have a thinly-veiled political agenda. Namely: To get economists to humbly serve the demagogues that rule the world instead of bluntly challenging their unabated…
The RCT Agenda
Some Chinese electric cars are ‘almost uninsurable’ in Britain
12 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in development economics, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, growth miracles, law and economics, transport economics, urban economics Tags: adverse selection, asymmetric information, British politics, electric cars, moral hazard
By Paul Homewood h/t Patsy Lacey Owners of some of the latest Chinese electric cars to enter Britain are facing expensive premiums and in some cases are ‘almost uninsurable’ for drivers. It comes after various reports of Range Rover owners struggling to find affordable cover for their vehicles, which is linked […]
Some Chinese electric cars are ‘almost uninsurable’ in Britain
Environmentalism Perverted by Climatism
08 Mar 2024 1 Comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, development economics, economic growth, economic history, economics of climate change, economics of crime, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, growth miracles, law and economics, liberalism, macroeconomics, Marxist economics, property rights Tags: climate alarmism, free speech, regressive left, The Great Enrichment
J. Scott Turner explains how the roots of environmental stewardship were poisoned, resulting in the perverted modern decarbonization movement. His Spectator Australia article is Environmentalism: from concern about clean air to throwing soup at the Mona Lisa. Excerpts in italics with my bolds and added images. H/T John Ray Garrett Hardin was a professor of biology […]
Environmentalism Perverted by Climatism
What can be learned from Singaporean health care institutions?
06 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, development economics, growth miracles, health economics, industrial organisation Tags: health insurance, Singapore
Besides the usual, that is. Max Thilo of the UK has a new and excellent study on this, here is one excerpt from the foreword by Lord Warner: Second, and critical, the Singaporeans are not fixated on delivering services from acute hospitals – the most expensive part of any healthcare system because of its fixed […]
What can be learned from Singaporean health care institutions?
Global GDP
14 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic growth, economic history, growth miracles, macroeconomics Tags: The Great Enrichment
Cool chart which is split up by regions so it’s easy to find nations like little old New Zealand ($US 252 billion) and Israel ($539 billion). I was a little surprised at the latter as I thought they’d be much bigger with all the high tech companies they have, as well as having a population […]
Global GDP
The Great Fact
10 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic growth, economic history, gender, growth miracles, macroeconomics, poverty and inequality Tags: The Great Enrichment, The Great Fact
Prosperity Essentials: Why Coal, Oil & Gas Keep Delivering Heaven on Earth
31 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic history, economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, growth miracles Tags: life expectancies, The Great Enrichment
Coal, then oil and gas, have driven the mechanization and industrialisation responsible for lifting billions out of agrarian poverty, and all in the space of little more than a century. As a band of miserable misanthropes would have it, oil, coal and gas are an unadulterated evil to be driven back to the earthly depths […]
Prosperity Essentials: Why Coal, Oil & Gas Keep Delivering Heaven on Earth
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