Blame neoliberalism
09 Oct 2017 Leave a comment
in economic history, labour economics, poverty and inequality, welfare reform Tags: child poverty
How people stayed healthy during wartime food rationing
06 Oct 2017 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economic history, health economics
Mega-sports events cost overruns
04 Oct 2017 Leave a comment
in economic history, sports economics
There is a large international literature documenting cost overruns in mega-projects and mega-sports events. Mega-projects are large-scale, complex construction ventures that take many years to develop and build.
The cost blow-outs in the Olympic Games, World Cup and Commonwealth Games will be more familiar to the reader because these are in the media in the run-up to these mega-sports events.
The Olympic Games, with one exception, involved massive, multi facility construction projects to a hard deadline. The only Olympics to come in on budget was the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. It used existing sports facilities in that city. Los Angeles was able to stage the Olympics this way because few wanted to host them after the massive cost blow-out in Montréal – see Figure 1. The Los Angeles Olympics Organizing Committee was a private concern that could host an Olympics on the cheap and still be the winning bidder because Tehran withdrew the only competing bid to host the 1984 Olympics.
Figure 1: Sports-related cost overruns, Olympics 1960-2012; original currencies, real terms
Source: Flyvbjerg and Stewart (2012), table 1.
The house always wins even among sin shares
28 Sep 2017 Leave a comment
in economic history, financial economics
… the mean excess return varies from a low of 5.3% (alcohol), through 9.6% (biotech), 10.0% (adult services), 14.7% (tobacco) and 24.6% (weapons), to a high of 26.4% (gaming).
Source: Dimson E; Marsh P; and Staunton M. “Responsible investing: does it pay to be bad?” Global investment returns yearbook. Credit Suisse Research Institute 2015.
#OTD 1998 it started in a garage, biggest search engine by July 2000
27 Sep 2017 Leave a comment
in economic history, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, survivor principle Tags: creative destruction
Videographic: India, Pakistan and Kashmir | The Economist
21 Sep 2017 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economic history, international economics, International law Tags: economics of borders, India, Pakistan
The World’s Strangest Borders Part 2: Spain
20 Sep 2017 Leave a comment
in economic history, international economics, International law Tags: economics of borders
The World’s Strangest Borders Part 1: Panhandles
19 Sep 2017 Leave a comment
in economic history, international economics, International law Tags: economics of borders
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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