The population bust
15 Jul 2025 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic history, labour economics, labour supply, population economics Tags: ageing society, economics of fertility, population bust
Is Progress Progressive?
14 Jul 2025 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of education, economics of regulation, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: pessimism bias, The Great Enrichment
We should not assume that all adopted innovations are progressive. Jonathon Haidt’s ‘The Anxious Generation’ illustrates that sometimes they require social measures to enhance well being. Brian Easton writes – The Anxious Generation is a book which probably everyone engaging with adolescents should read. Haidt’s thesis is that smartphones replacing flip phones led to a marked […]
Is Progress Progressive?
Book review: Empire of Guns
13 Jul 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, development economics, economic history Tags: industrial revolution
My ECONS101 class discussed the Industrial Revolution in class last week, focusing on why it happened first in England, rather than France or China or elsewhere. By coincidence, I was just finishing up reading the book Empire of Guns by Priya Satia. A conventional view of factors underlying the Industrial Revolution in England, such as the…
Book review: Empire of Guns
#TheGreatEscape
11 Jul 2025 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic history, growth disasters, growth miracles, health economics Tags: India, Pakistan
The Weird and Lovely Surge of US Productivity Growth
04 Jul 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economic growth, economic history, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, politics - USA
In the long run, a rising standard of living is always and everywhere based on productivity growth. Thus, Austan Goolsbee notedin a keynote address at the “Summit” conference held at the Stanford Institute of Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) in February (“Remarks on Productivity Growth and Monetary Policy,” February 28, 2025): As Goolsbee notes, annual productivity…
The Weird and Lovely Surge of US Productivity Growth
“An Evolving Economic Force,” A Conversation with Claudia Goldin
03 Jul 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, econometerics, economic history, gender, health and safety, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality Tags: gender wage gap, sex discrimination
A interview with a “heterodox” New Zealand scientist: “Why Mātauranga Māori Isn’t Science:”
02 Jul 2025 1 Comment
in economic history, economics of education, environmentalism, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, Rawls and Nozick Tags: Age of Enlightenment, conjecture and refutation, cranks, philosophy of science, political correctness, regressive left
I’ve written a lot about the controversy in New Zealand involving whether the indigenous “way of knowing,” Mātauranga Māori (MM), is equivalent to modern science (often called “Western science”) and, as many maintain, should be taught alongside modern in science classes (see all my posts here). As I’ve noted, because MM does have elements of […]
A interview with a “heterodox” New Zealand scientist: “Why Mātauranga Māori Isn’t Science:”
Vaccines matter
29 Jun 2025 Leave a comment
in economic history, health economics Tags: anti-vaccination movement, cranks, vaccines
Bad Economic History Fuels Bad Present-Day Economic Policies
28 Jun 2025 1 Comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, comparative institutional analysis, development economics, economic history, history of economic thought, income redistribution, industrial organisation, international economics, liberalism, politics - USA, Public Choice
TweetAt CapX, I explain what motivated Phil Gramm and me to write our book, The Triumph of Economic Freedom: Debunking the Seven Great Myths of American Capitalism. A slice: Likewise with America’s own industrial revolution, the ‘Gilded Age’. American schoolchildren are taught that the final third of the 19th century witnessed John D. Rockefeller and…
Bad Economic History Fuels Bad Present-Day Economic Policies
Unfettered: Fishback 25 Years Later
25 Jun 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, history of economic thought, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, politics - USA, poverty and inequality Tags: economics of immigration, employment law, monopsony
A quarter century ago, economist Price Fishback published “Operations of ‘Unfettered’ Labor Markets: Exit and Voice in American Labor Markets at the Turn of the Century” 1,762 more words
Unfettered: Fishback 25 Years Later
The Great Escape
25 Jun 2025 Leave a comment
in economic history, health economics Tags: cancer survival rates, The Great Escape
The Grim Logic of Israel’s War
24 Jun 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economic history, International law, laws of war, war and peace Tags: bombing of Germany, Gaza Strip, Iran, Israel, Middle-East politics, World War I, World War II
If the best course of action is to avoid war, then the second-best course, with war already raging, is to end it. Chris Trotter writes – THE LOGIC OF WAR is pitiless and relentless. Once embarked upon, warfare creates needs and imposes priorities that cannot be ignored without imposing unsustainable costs on one’s own military […]
The Grim Logic of Israel’s War
Polio
24 Jun 2025 Leave a comment
in economic history, health economics Tags: anti-vaccination movement, vaccines
I like maps
24 Jun 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economic history, war and peace Tags: economics of borders, maps, World War I
Predatory Pricing Is A Foolish Strategy
20 Jun 2025 1 Comment
in applied price theory, economic history, history of economic thought, industrial organisation Tags: competition law
TweetI’m proud to have paired up with the Cato Institute’s Marian Tupy to pen this new piece at National Review on so-called ‘predatory pricing.’ A slice: Competition drives innovation, improves quality, and most importantly, lowers prices for consumers. Yet when foreign companies — particularly Chinese firms — successfully compete on price, accusations of “predatory pricing”…
Predatory Pricing Is A Foolish Strategy
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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