I was saddened to hear of the passing of William Nordhaus last Friday. Nordhaus won the Nobel Prize in 2018 “for integrating climate change into long-run macroeconomic analysis”, and it is his work on climate change and economics that he might be best known for. However, that was far from his only contribution to economics.…
William Nordhaus, 1941-2026
William Nordhaus, 1941-2026
02 Nov 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, development economics, econometerics, economic growth, economic history, environmental economics, history of economic thought, macroeconomics
2018, Global Financial Crisis @ 10, Valerie Ramey, “What Have We Learned…
01 Nov 2026 Leave a comment
in budget deficits, business cycles, econometerics, economic history, fiscal policy, global financial crisis (GFC), great recession, history of economic thought, macroeconomics
2018, Global Financial Crisis @ 10, Valerie Ramey, “What Have We Learned…
29 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in budget deficits, business cycles, currency unions, econometerics, economic history, fiscal policy, global financial crisis (GFC), great recession, history of economic thought, macroeconomics, monetary economics
The California billionaire tax is very likely a net revenue loser
28 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, entrepreneurship, politics - USA, public economics Tags: California, taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment
This paper examines the revenue and migration impact of the 2026 California Billionaire Tax Act, a one-time 5 percent tax on the worldwide net worth of individuals exceeding $1 billion. Using data from the Forbes Billionaire List, news reports detailing the residential real estate holdings of California billionaires, and public announcements of billionaire departures from…
The California billionaire tax is very likely a net revenue loser
How to Profit From a Cartel Without Joining One
27 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economic history, economics of regulation, financial economics, industrial organisation, law and economics Tags: competition law
Adam Smith warned that people in the same trade rarely meet without the conversation turning to a scheme to raise prices. Antitrust enforcers on both sides of the Atlantic now suspect they can skip the meeting—a shared shareholder may do the job. In May 2025, the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC)…
How to Profit From a Cartel Without Joining One
Job fatality and injury risk, and compensating differentials
25 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in labour economics, occupational choice, applied welfare economics, health and safety, econometerics, applied price theory, labour supply
Last week, my ECONS102 class covered health economics. Part of that topic involves discussion of approaches to measuring the ‘value of a preventable fatality’ (sometimes also called the ‘value of a statistical life’, or VSL). One of those approaches is the willingness-to-pay (WTP) approach, which involves estimating what people would be willing to pay in…
Job fatality and injury risk, and compensating differentials
California in-migration and out-migration
14 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, entrepreneurship, fiscal policy, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, public economics Tags: California, taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment, taxation and labour supply, top 1%
Long-run U.S. population movements have been driven more by natural amenities than by jobs, and California, rich in both uniform and complementary climates, should be a persistent net gainer of domestic migrants. It has instead lost residents to other states every year since about 1990. This paper argues that its amenities are unchanged and that…
California in-migration and out-migration
Marianne Bertrand, laureate of the Jean-Jacques Laffont Prize 2019
08 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, econometerics, economic history, economics of education, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality Tags: gender wage gap
The beauty premium doesn’t seem to extend to billionaires
06 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economic history, entrepreneurship, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, poverty and inequality Tags: top 1%
There is a broad literature supporting the existence of a ‘beauty premium’ in labour markets – more attractive workers tend to earn more. There are a number of channels proposed to account for this, including confidence, social or communication skills being higher among more attractive workers, attractive workers sorting into occupations that reward attractiveness, and…
The beauty premium doesn’t seem to extend to billionaires
Did the ACA reduce mortality?
05 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economic history, health economics, politics - USA Tags: health insurance
Many of us brought up related points at the time, but basically we were booed off the reservation: While recent research has provided evidence that the Medicaid expansions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) reduced mortality, there is no evidence on the effect of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) net of the Medicaid expansions on…
Did the ACA reduce mortality?
New issue of Econ Journal Watch
03 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economic history, economics of regulation, financial economics, history of economic thought
Volume 23, Issue 2, September 2026 In this issue: “China shock” fragility: According to David Autor, David Dorn, and Gordon Hanson (2013), the “China shock” hit the United States from 1990 to 2007. When corrections by Kirill Borusyak et al. (2022) are fully applied, Joseph Francis argues, the harm of Chinese imports to unemployment, labor force…
New issue of Econ Journal Watch
The Economics of a Shrinking World
27 Sep 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, development economics, econometerics, economic history, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, population economics
From Jesus Fernandez-Villaverde and Patrick Norrick: As of 2026, humanity is likely below replacement fertility. That has never happened before, not in wars or pandemics. But the real surprise is that the fall has been concentrated in low- and middle-income countries and among poorer and less educated women. We fit a single-factor model to 236…
The Economics of a Shrinking World
Scott Freeman on the money multiplier
25 Sep 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, business cycles, econometerics, economic history, history of economic thought, macroeconomics, Milton Friedman, monetarism, monetary economics Tags: monetary policy
The Externalities of Airports and Immigrants
24 Sep 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, transport economics, urban economics Tags: economics of immigration
Are the externalities of airports positive or negative? If you base your answer on NIMBY complaining, the answer is obviously negative. Above all, there’s the noise. The deafening sounds of take-off and landing bedevil everyone who spends time near the airport. On top of that, there’s daily traffic. Not every airport is LAX (in fact,…
The Externalities of Airports and Immigrants
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