One of the hardest questions in copyright policy is: “What would have happened otherwise?” When Disney lobbies for longer copyright terms or academic publishers defend high subscription fees, we struggle to evaluate their claims because we can’t observe the counterfactual. What would happen to creativity and innovation if we shortened copyright terms or lowered prices? […]
A Wartime Natural Experiment About Copyright
A Wartime Natural Experiment About Copyright
26 Jan 2025 1 Comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, defence economics, econometerics, economic history, economics of education, economics of information, economics of media and culture, economics of regulation, industrial organisation, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights, war and peace Tags: patents and copyrights, World War II
Barrett-Lite: The Supreme Court Takes Up Major New Religion Clause Case With One Notable Exception
26 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of education, economics of religion, politics - USA Tags: Freedom of religion, School choice
On Friday, the Supreme Court agreed to review a potentially blockbuster religion clause case in Oklahoma Charter School Board v. Drummond. However, there is a catch. While the lawyers representing St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School may need every vote they can get in this heaving contested area, they may have to prevail without Justice […]
Barrett-Lite: The Supreme Court Takes Up Major New Religion Clause Case With One Notable Exception
The DEI preference cascade
23 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, behavioural economics, discrimination, economics of bureaucracy, economics of education, economics of information, economics of media and culture, economics of regulation, gender, labour economics, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice Tags: affirmative action, Age of Enlightenment, free speech, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left, sex discrimination
Trump Issues Major New Executive Order Impacting Higher Education
23 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: 2024 presidential election, affirmative action, free speech, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left, sex discrimination
Last night, I discussed a new executive order signed by President Donald Trump that included an extension of his earlier move against “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) policies to the area of higher education. The order makes direct reference to the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, […]
Trump Issues Major New Executive Order Impacting Higher Education
Consortium of secular organizations attack scientists deemed transphobic, The Center for Inquiry responds
21 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of education, economics of religion, health economics, politics - USA Tags: 2024 presidential election, Age of Enlightenment, conjecture and refutation, free speech, philosophy of science, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
This will be the next-to-last item I write about my entanglement with the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF)—I hope. I am pretty sure that the joint statement below resulted from the fracas that ensued after the FFRF took down my post about biological sex, followed by my resignation and those of Richard Dawkins and Steve […]
Consortium of secular organizations attack scientists deemed transphobic, The Center for Inquiry responds
No Tech Workers or No Tech Jobs?
19 Jan 2025 1 Comment
in economics of education, entrepreneurship, human capital, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice
Several recent tweets(xeets) about tech talent re-ignited the conversation about native-born STEM workers and American policy. For the Very Online, Christmas 2024 was about the H-1B Elon tweets. Elon Musk implies that “elite” engineering talent cannot be found among Americans. Do Americans need to import talent? What would it take to home grow elite engineering […]
No Tech Workers or No Tech Jobs?
The Acemoglu arguments against high-skilled immigration
13 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of education, entrepreneurship, human capital, international economics, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, politics - USA, poverty and inequality Tags: economics of immigration
Here is Daron Acemoglu’s Project Syndicate piece, mostly critical on high-skilled immigration. Here is the first argument from Acemoglu: …one would expect corporate America’s growing need for skilled STEM workers to translate into advocacy for, and investments in, STEM education. But an overreliance on the H-1B program may have broken this link and made American […]
The Acemoglu arguments against high-skilled immigration
Government moves to strengthen free speech on campus
03 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of education, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left
Penny Simmonds announced: Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds and Associate Minister of Education David Seymour today announced legislation changes to strengthen freedom of speech obligations on universities. “Freedom of speech is fundamental to the concept of academic freedom and there is concern that universities seem to be taking a more risk-averse approach,” Ms […]
Government moves to strengthen free speech on campus
Atheist Orthodoxy: The Freedom From Religion Foundation Censors Scientist Over Transgender Views
03 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, health economics, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, property rights Tags: Age of Enlightenment, conjecture and refutation, free speech, Freedom of religion, gender gap, philosophy of science, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) is under fire this week after it censored a leading scientist, atheist, and board member, Jerry Coyne, a professor emeritus of ecology at the University of Chicago. The FFRF took down a column in which Coyne published a column titled “Biology is not bigotry,” a critique of an earlier […]
Atheist Orthodoxy: The Freedom From Religion Foundation Censors Scientist Over Transgender Views
DEI Days are Numbered in Ivory Towers
31 Dec 2024 1 Comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, liberalism, Marxist economics Tags: Canada, free speech, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left, sex discrimination
Leigh Revers writes at National Post Canada Universities better get prepared for Poilievre’s anti-woke agenda. Excerpts in italics with my bolds and added images. ‘Even the dullest minds in the upper administrations of Canada’s top universities — and trust me, they are spectacularly dull — must see the writing on the wall’ The recent spectacular […]
DEI Days are Numbered in Ivory Towers
Simon Fraser University tries to decolonize and indigenize STEM
28 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of education Tags: Age of Enlightenment, conjecture and refutation, free speech, philosophy of science, political correctness, regressive left
UPDATE: The site to which I refer below disappeared for a while this morning, and then reappeared. So the post right below still links to the right places: Simon Fraser University in British Columbia recently adopted a policy of institutional neutrality. But its latest endeavor shows that it’s still in the thrall of wokeness, for […]
Simon Fraser University tries to decolonize and indigenize STEM
Holes in IPCC Science Revealed
26 Dec 2024 1 Comment
in economics of education, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: climate alarmism
Graeme Weber reports from Australia on the history revealing multiple holes in IPCC claimed “settled science.” His paper is IPCC – Miss/Diss information? shared with me by email. Graeme is an earth scientist, retired consulting geologist and advocate for nuclear energy. His text is in italics with my bolds and added images. Several years ago, […]
Holes in IPCC Science Revealed
Why are Top Scientists Leaving Harvard?
20 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
Harvard magazine has an excellent interview with three scientists, Michael Mina, Douglas Melton and Stuart Schreiber, all highly regarded in their fields of life sciences, who have recently left Harvard for the private sector. Why did they leave? Mina tells an incredible story of what happened during the pandemic. At the time Mina was a […]
Why are Top Scientists Leaving Harvard?
Has an Anonymous Political Donor to Schools Sabotaged National, ACT & NZ First? Will Children be Educated Not to Vote for them, as of Next Week?
12 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, economics of education, politics - New Zealand Tags: constitutional law
The State-owned Broadcaster has just announced, “Every high school in NZ is set to receive a copy of a new book about the Treaty of Waitangi following a surprise donation by an [anonymous] Auckland couple”. One News says the book, “Understanding Te Tiriti”, is “a guide to NZ’s founding document”. Except that’s not the book’s…
Has an Anonymous Political Donor to Schools Sabotaged National, ACT & NZ First? Will Children be Educated Not to Vote for them, as of Next Week?
JOHN RAINE: Why Engineering Cannot be Decolonised
10 Dec 2024 1 Comment
in economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: Age of Enlightenment, free speech, political correctness, regressive left
Concordia University is Decolonising Early 2024, Lawrence Krauss reported [1] that Concordia University in Canada is in the process of decolonising and indigenising its curricula, including Engineering. He noted that this will put Concordia on the Map, but not in a positive way. The new university plan at Concordia is drawing on “principles embodied in…
JOHN RAINE: Why Engineering Cannot be Decolonised
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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