
About 101 billion people have lived & died
30 Nov 2015 Leave a comment
in economic history, population economics Tags: Population demographics
About 101 billion people have lived & died
fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-… http://t.co/Rk4j6Q8HRl—
Conrad Hackett (@conradhackett) October 17, 2015
Share of world poverty has halved in last 20 years
29 Nov 2015 1 Comment
in development economics, economic history, growth disasters, growth miracles Tags: capitalism and freedom, expressive voting, extreme poverty The Great Fact, global poverty, rational ignorance, rational rationality, voter demographics
https://twitter.com/MaxCRoser/status/630066216158261248/photo/1
Since 1820 the world's population increased 7x while extreme poverty fell from 94% to 14%. buff.ly/1hgHIrb http://t.co/0dx4GE4Uqc—
Jeremiah Dillon (@jeremiahdillon) August 07, 2015
Male life expectancy increased from 70.8 in 1980-82 to 79.1 in 2012-14
28 Nov 2015 Leave a comment
in economic history, health economics Tags: female life expectancy, life expectancies, male life expectancy, The Great Escape
European exploration of Australia & New Zealand
27 Nov 2015 Leave a comment
in economic history Tags: Age of exploration, Australia, New Zealand
The Swedish and Danish actual and equilibrium unemployment rates since 1962
27 Nov 2015 Leave a comment
in economic history, job search and matching, labour economics, unemployment
The Danish equilibrium unemployment rate has been surprisingly stable since 1982 despite rather volatile actual unemployment. The Swedish unemployment rate was allowed to increase in line with the economic crisis in the early 1990s and that was it. How nice it must be for the Danes and Swedes to have such stable labour market institutions.

Source: OECD Economic Outlook November 2015.
The Danes have a highly deregulated labour market. There were major economic and welfare state reforms in Sweden in the early 1990s in response to high unemployment. These institutional developments barely showed up in their equilibrium unemployment rates.
No Generation Rent in Deutschland or Nihon? Housing price to income ratios, USA, UK, Japan, Germany and New Zealand
27 Nov 2015 Leave a comment
in economic history, urban economics Tags: Generation Rent, housing affordability, housing prices
Japan and Germany seem to be pretty relaxed places to buy a house over the last 15 years. The USA had a bit of a bubble but it burst. New Zealand and the UK are dogs of places if you are young and house-hunting.

Source: OECD Economic Outlook November 2015, Annex Table 61.
Australian and New Zealand actual and equilibrium unemployment rates since 1964
27 Nov 2015 Leave a comment
in economic history, job search and matching, labour economics, unemployment
The Australian and New Zealand equilibrium unemployment rates are much more obedient. They neatly track actual unemployment with few exceptions for recessions. So much so is this close tracking of the actual unemployment rate by the equilibrium unemployment rate that you wonder what extra the latter concept adds.

Source: OECD Stat and OECD Economic Outlook November 2015.
World is now experiencing greatest child mortality reduction ever
27 Nov 2015 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic history, growth miracles, health economics Tags: capitalism and freedom, child mortality, infant mortality, The Great Escape
Where do cyclones occur?
27 Nov 2015 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of natural disasters Tags: cyclones, hurricanes
The storm track of every tropical cyclone from 1985 to 2005
– http://t.co/hM6YQZdCUp—
Amazing Maps (@Amazing_Maps) July 22, 2015
French and Italian actual and equilibrium unemployment rate since 1968
26 Nov 2015 1 Comment
in economic history, job search and matching, unemployment
Unlike the USA, the OECD’s host country’s actual and equilibrium unemployment rates track each other rather too closely for comfort. In contrast, Italian unemployment hardly ever catches up with the Italian equilibrium unemployment rate. In common with the US equilibrium unemployment rate, the Italian equilibrium unemployment rate was rather stable for quite some time.

Source: OECD Stat and OECD Economic Outlook November 2015
US and UK actual and equilibrium unemployment rates since 1971
26 Nov 2015 2 Comments
in economic history, job search and matching, labour economics, unemployment
I can’t think of a charitable explanation of why the equilibrium unemployment rate is so stable in the USA and yet tracks actual unemployment with a bit of a lag in the UK. There is a large literature showing that the equilibrium unemployment rate in the USA has gone up and down quite significantly if only for demographic reasons related to the baby boomers passing through the workforce in large numbers in the 70s.

Source: OECD Stat and OECD Economic Outlook November 2015.

Recent Comments