Pinksourcing With Kristen Bell
21 Sep 2016 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, entrepreneurship, gender, labour economics Tags: entrepreneurial alertness, gender wage gap
#Uber and creative destruction in The Knowledge
21 Sep 2016 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, survivor principle Tags: creative destruction, entrepreneurial alertness, taxi regulation, Uber
I used Uber for the first time over the weekend. My car was towed away and a friend had the app on his phone. We used it to go to the tow away yard to pay the $275 release fee.
One of the things I noticed was the the driver could immediately use his GPS because it was pre-programmed by the booking.
When you book a regular cab, they do not know where you are going until they arrive. This is to stop drivers avoiding picking up short trips. It also means that they must know where they are going rather than waste time programming the GPS. Prior to the GPS, they simply had to know where everything was.
The Knowledge, knowledge of London streets necessary to qualify for a black cab License is so difficult that neurologists study the brains of black cabdrivers to see how they are different from others in memory capacity.
Uber destroyed the Knowledge in a wave of creative destruction by linking the app booking request to GPSs. No diver needs to know where anything because the destination and pickup points are both pre-programmed into their GPS.
Are GMOs Good or Bad?
18 Sep 2016 Leave a comment
in economics, entrepreneurship, environmental economics, health economics Tags: Anti-Science left, GMOs
#Seinfeld economics: market power for soup
12 Sep 2016 Leave a comment
in economics, economics of media and culture, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation Tags: Seinfeld, trade secrets
Why politicians and bureaucrats can never pick winners?
12 Aug 2016 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, politics - New Zealand
If politicians and bureaucrats were any good at picking winners, they will be on a fabulously well paid package at a hedge fund.
The Economist Crony Capitalism Index
08 Jul 2016 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economics of bureaucracy, entrepreneurship, financial economics, growth disasters, growth miracles, industrial organisation, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking, survivor principle Tags: crony capitalism, superstar wages, superstars, top 1%
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In the hours after planes hit WTC, largest maritime evacuation in history took place
05 Jul 2016 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economics, entrepreneurship Tags: 9/11, spontaneous order
HT: Pete Boettke
#Corporatewelfare since 2008 @JordNZ @MatthewHootonNZ @GrantRobertson1 @stevenljoyce
02 Jul 2016 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of bureaucracy, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, rentseeking, survivor principle Tags: corporate welfare, industry policy, picking losers, picking winners, The pretense to knowledge
My latest corporate welfare report is out at the Taxpayers Union website. The company tax could be 6 percentage points lower but for this generosity of politicians picking winners.
Source: New Zealand Budget Papers, various years.
It is not as bad as you think under the last Labour government budget. $700 million of those hand-outs to business was seed capital for agricultural research institute. That institute to be run out of the investment income on that $700 million one-off injection which the incoming National Party-led government cancelled.
Another $675 million in that last Labour budget was to KiwiRail and OnTrack. Other than that, the Labour Party ran a pretty tight ship on business subsidies. There are no particular record of picking winners. Labour did buy a real loser in KiwiRail. You heard it here first.
Deirdre McCloskey: What are the biggest misunderstandings about capitalism?
30 Jun 2016 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic history, entrepreneurship Tags: capitalism and freedom
10 Inventors Who Made Modern Life Possible
29 Jun 2016 Leave a comment
in economic history, entrepreneurship
Robots Are Really Bad At Folding Towels
25 Jun 2016 Leave a comment
in economics, economics of media and culture, entrepreneurship, human capital, labour economics, labour supply Tags: creative destruction, robots
Source: Robots Are Really Bad At Folding Towels : Planet Money : NPR.
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