I’m a sports fan, which in this case may represent a conflict of interest, because it means I’m conflicted about public subsidies going to sports stadiums. The economic evidence on this point is pretty clear: such subsidies can transfer how people spend their entertainment dollars from one area of a city to another, but the net…
Professional Sports and the Lack of Local Economic Payoffs
Professional Sports and the Lack of Local Economic Payoffs
15 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, econometerics, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking, sports economics, urban economics
When Fewer People Answer Surveys, What Should Government Statisticians Do?
04 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in econometerics, economic history
Back in 1790, when Congress was arguing about process for the first Census, one argument was that the Census should limit itself to counting heads, for purposes of determining how many representatives each state should receive. But James Madison argued that it was important to seize the opportunity of the Census to gather additional information,…
When Fewer People Answer Surveys, What Should Government Statisticians Do?
John Stuart Mill on empirical economics and causal inference
01 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in econometerics, history of economic thought Tags: conjecture and refutation, philosophy of science
Written by me, here is a passage from GOAT: Who is the Greatest Economist of All Time, and Why Should We Care? A System of Logic covers many different topics, but for our purposes the most important discussion is Mill’s treatment “Of the Four Methods of Experimental Inquiry,” sometimes called “Mill’s Methods” and indeed receiving […]
John Stuart Mill on empirical economics and causal inference
Interview with Angus Deaton: Critiques of Cosmopolitan Prioritarianism and Randomized Control Trials
25 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, development economics, econometerics, experimental economics, growth disasters, growth miracles, history of economic thought
David A. Price of the Richmond Fed carries out an interview titled “Angus Deaton: On deaths of despair, randomized controlled trials, and winning the Nobel Prize” (Econ Focus: Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Fourth Quarter 2023, pp. 18-22). Here are a few of Deaton’s comments that caught my eye: On his shift from “cosmopolitan prioritarianism” to…
Interview with Angus Deaton: Critiques of Cosmopolitan Prioritarianism and Randomized Control Trials
From Now To 2100 Emission Reduction Policy Costs Greatly Exceed Any Net Benefit from Averted Warming
20 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, development economics, econometerics, economic history, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, growth disasters, growth miracles Tags: climate alarmism
The benefits of not meeting Paris Accord emissions-reduction targets outweigh the costs associated even with worst-case-scenario global warming throughout the 21st century.
From Now To 2100 Emission Reduction Policy Costs Greatly Exceed Any Net Benefit from Averted Warming
The Piketty-Saez-Zucman response to Auten and Splinter
17 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economic history, entrepreneurship, financial economics, income redistribution, labour economics, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, public economics Tags: top 1%
A number of you have asked me what I think of their response. The first thing I noticed is that Auten and Splinter make several major criticisms of PSZ, and yet PSZ respond to only one of them. On the others they are mysteriously silent. The second thing I noticed is that PSZ have been […]
The Piketty-Saez-Zucman response to Auten and Splinter
Is Discrimination Still Causing The Gender Pay Gap With Claudia Goldin
13 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, econometerics, economic history, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, minimum wage, occupational choice Tags: gender wage gap, sex discrimination
Goldin Nobel
13 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, econometerics, economic history, economics of education, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice Tags: gender wage gap, sex discrimination
Comparing EU-to-US Output Per Hour
01 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in econometerics, economic growth, economic history, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, occupational choice
The per capita GDP for the combined 27 countries of the European Union (EU-27) is about 72% of the US level. On the other side, the average worker in EU countries puts in far fewer hours on the job than do American workers. For example, OECD data says that the average US worker put in…
Comparing EU-to-US Output Per Hour
Prize lecture: David Card, Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences …
30 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economic history, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, minimum wage, unemployment
AASLE 2021 Bob Gregory Lecture – Claudia Goldin
23 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, discrimination, econometerics, economic history, economics of education, economics of information, gender, health and safety, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice Tags: gender wage gap, sex discrimination
Filling in the Gaps: Next Steps for the Fiscal Theory of the Price Level
15 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, budget deficits, business cycles, econometerics, economic history, financial economics, fiscal policy, great depression, great recession, history of economic thought, inflation targeting, macroeconomics, monetarism, monetary economics Tags: monetary policy
Jennifer Burns on Milton Friedman 11/13/23
14 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, business cycles, comparative institutional analysis, econometerics, economic history, economics of education, economics of regulation, fiscal policy, great depression, history of economic thought, labour economics, liberalism, libertarianism, macroeconomics, Milton Friedman, monetarism, monetary economics Tags: monetary policy
This year ‘virtually certain’ to be warmest in 125,000 years, EU scientists say — ignoring contradictory evidence?
10 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
in econometerics, environmental economics, global warming
The ‘virtual’ in virtually certain is from a computer model result: ‘we combine our data with the IPCC’. Two things to bear in mind: satellite data only started in the 1970s, with other less accurate (due to shortage of data) records being kept from the 1880s onwards, and ‘the mid-Holocene … mean annual temperature reached […]
This year ‘virtually certain’ to be warmest in 125,000 years, EU scientists say — ignoring contradictory evidence?
Book Presentation with John Cochrane: “The Fiscal Theory of the Price Le…
09 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
in budget deficits, business cycles, econometerics, economic growth, economic history, Euro crisis, fiscal policy, global financial crisis (GFC), great depression, great recession, history of economic thought, inflation targeting, macroeconomics, Milton Friedman, monetarism, monetary economics, public economics Tags: monetary policy
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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