Zealots cannot countenance trade-offs and diminishing returns – Thomas Sowell
13 Aug 2014 Leave a comment
Ending child labour can only be through expanding family opportunities
11 Aug 2014 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic growth, human capital, labour economics, technological progress Tags: Ben Powell, child labour
Ebola and you
01 Aug 2014 Leave a comment
in development economics, growth disasters, health economics Tags: Ebola, media panic, The Great Escape
How do people become infected with the virus?
Ebola is transmitted through close contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected animals. In Africa infection in humans has happened as a result of contact with chimpanzees, gorillas, fruit bats, monkeys, forest antelope and porcupines found ill or dead in the rainforest.
The Ebola virus is fatal in 90 per cent of cases and there is no vaccine and no known cure.
Who is most at risk?
Those at risk during an outbreak include:
- health workers
- family members or others in close contact with infected people
- mourners with direct contact with the bodies of deceased victims
- hunters in contact with dead animals
What are the typical signs and symptoms?
Sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. That is followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function and internal and external bleeding.
The incubation period is between two and 21 days.
A person will become contagious once they start to show symptoms. Once a person becomes infected, the virus can spread through contact with a sufferer’s blood, urine, saliva, stools and semen.
When should you seek medical care?
If a person is in an area affected by the outbreak, or has been in contact with a person known or suspected to have Ebola, they should seek medical help immediately.
What is the treatment?
Severely ill patients require intensive supportive care. They need intravenous fluids to rehydrate them. There is currently no specific treatment for the disease. Some patients will recover with the appropriate care.
Can Ebola be prevented?
Currently there is no licensed vaccine for Ebola. Several are being tested but are not available for clinical use.
Source: World Health Organisation via dailymail
Institutions matter
18 Jul 2014 Leave a comment
in development economics, law and economics, property rights Tags: border effects, property rights
Rwanda has better institutions than the congo.
Haiti and the dominican republic share the same island but not the same property rights.
Fighting the World’s Biggest Environmental Problem – With Fossil Fuels | Bjorn Lomborg
12 Jul 2014 2 Comments
in development economics, environmental economics Tags: Bjørn Lomborg, indoor pollution
The Great Fact
06 Jul 2014 Leave a comment
in development economics, growth miracles Tags: The Great Escape, The Great Fact
The graph shows the total global proportion of people in extreme poverty from 1820-2005, defined as having less than $1 per day (inflation adjusted across the time period).
HT: Cool It
Of mice and collective farms
04 Jul 2014 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, development economics, growth disasters Tags: Russian jokes
When Stalin was in office, he once noted that there were mice in his study and complained to President Kalinin about this.
The President thought for a moment and suggested, "Why don’t you put up a sign reading ‘Collective Farm’? Half the mice will die of hunger and the other half will run away."
The Great Enrichment foretold
01 Jul 2014 Leave a comment
in growth miracles, liberalism Tags: The Great Enrichment, The Great Fact, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Whig theory of history
Thomas Babington Macaulay’s books on British history are hailed as literary masterpieces.
His writing are famous for their emphasis on a progressive model of British history, according to which the country threw off superstition, autocracy and confusion to create a balanced constitution and a forward-looking culture combined with freedom of belief and expression.
This model of human progress has been called the Whig interpretation of history where civilisation marches onwards and upwards towards the light. I do know how he explained the fall of the Roman Empire and the Dark Ages.
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