Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
23 May 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, econometerics, economic history, gender, health economics, labour economics, politics - USA, population economics Tags: abortion law reform
Regulations about abortion are often wildly controversial. But what effects to they actually have? Caitlin Myers addresses these issues in “From Roe to Dobbs: 50 Years of Cause and Effect of US State Abortion Regulations” (Annual Review of Public Health 2025, pp. 433-446). As a starting point, consider the years before and after the 1973 US Supreme Court…
US State-Level Abortion Regulations: Causes and Effects
22 May 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, development economics, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, health economics, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights Tags: 2024 presidential election, patents and copyrights, price controls, price discrimination
Econ 101 is often dismissed as too simplistic. Yet recent events suggest that Econ 101 is underrated. Take the tariff debate: understanding that a tariff is a tax, that prices represent opportunity costs, that a bilateral trade deficit is largely meaningless, that a so-called trade “deficit” is equally a goods surplus or an investment surplus—these […]
Econ 101 is Underrated: Pharma Price Controls
14 May 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, entrepreneurship, health economics, industrial organisation, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: price controls
Numerous empirical studies show a relationship between a drug’s expected market size and the magnitude of research and development investments. Early studies focused on changes to market size resulting from the demographics of disease burden (Acemoglu and Linn 2004) and policy changes influencing market demand (Finkelstein 2004). These findings have largely been confirmed by more […]
Supply is elastic, installment #6437
13 May 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, health economics, politics - USA
In a a juxtaposition of events that redefines the meaning of “coincidence,” President Trump announced a new policy for prescription drug pricing this morning, and the the Spring 2025 issue of the Journal of Economic Perspectives, released three days ago on Friday morning, begins with a four-paper symposium on drug pricing. (Full disclosure: I work…
What’s a New Drug Worth?
13 May 2025 Leave a comment
in economic history, health economics Tags: anti-vaccination movement, The Great Escape, vaccines
12 May 2025 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, health economics Tags: racial discrimination
Yes, folks, the science journals are still flaunting their virtue in articles that are similar to a gazillion articles published before. This time (and not the first time), the article is torturous because the assertions are mostly misleading. And it’s tortuous because it weaves back and forth between two themes: eugenics and the assumed beneficial […]
Nature tackles race and eugenics in a torturous and tortuous article
10 May 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, health economics Tags: health insurance
It may seem obvious that health insurance helps health, but very few cause-and-effect conclusions are obvious to economists. For example, suppose that we just compared the health of everyone who has health insurance and everyone who doesn’t. It would be unsurprising to find that those with health insurance are healthier, but the two groups will…
How Can You Tell if Health Insurance Helps Health?
07 May 2025 1 Comment
in defence economics, health economics, law and economics, war and peace Tags: constitutional law, economics of pandemics, war against terror, World War II
Democratic governments, despite their commitment to rule of law, civil liberties, and political accountability, have occasionally undertaken temporary extreme measures when facing grave national crises. These actions are typically justified as necessary to preserve the state or protect the population, though they can be controversial or later seen as overreach. Here are several notable examples: 1. Suspension […]
Extreme measures by democratic governments
06 May 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, health economics, politics - USA Tags: Canada, health insurance
While healthcare in Canada’s single-payer health care system is technically free, its real price is measured in wait times. In 2023, the median wait time from a general practitioner’s referral to treatment reached 27.7 weeks—the longest ever and nearly triple the 9.3 weeks reported in 1993. (MuskegonPundit) To see this, think of “free” as…
The price of “free” healthcare is the wait
03 May 2025 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, health economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: conjecture and refutation, free speech, philosophy of science, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
Trans activists and their supporters have confused feelings with facts in trying to convince themselves, and others, that sex isn’t binary. Science disproves that: Here’s why sex is binary, explained in 5 minutes. pic.twitter.com/DuX7Yk7Z0f — Zachary Elliott (@zaelefty) April 26, 2025
Sex is binary
28 Apr 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, health economics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice Tags: drug lags
Eric Crampton writes – Come the next pandemic, we are going to be in the same stupid mess that we were in during the last one. Trusted pharmaceutical regulators overseas, like those in Australia, Canada, Europe, and the UK, will have given provisional approvals for vaccines that are safe. And Kiwis will have to wait, […]
‘Rule of Two’ medicines approval needs improving
27 Apr 2025 Leave a comment
in economic history, health economics Tags: economics of smoking
25 Apr 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, health economics, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: economics of pandemics
My latest paper, Pandemic Preparation Without Romance, has just appeared at Public Choice. Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic, despite its unprecedented scale, mirrored previous disasters in its predictable missteps in preparedness and response. Rather than blaming individual actors or assuming better leadership would have prevented disaster, I examine how standard political incentives—myopic voters, bureaucratic gridlock, and […]
Pandemic Preparation Without Romance
23 Apr 2025 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of bureaucracy, gender, health economics, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
Radio NZ reports: The coalition has directed Health New Zealand to say “women” instead of “pregnant people” in its communications about health issues. Associate Health Minister Casey Costello wrote to interim chief executive Dr Dale Bramley on 27 March, telling the agency to use “clear language”. “Recent documents that have reached my office from the […]
It shouldn’t take a Minister for common sense to prevail
19 Apr 2025 1 Comment
in economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, health economics Tags: climate alarmism
Achieving Net Zero in 25 years would need a “complete transformation” of the UK’s agricultural and food system that would in effect mean a diet devoid of beef, lamb and all dairy products, according to the latest work from the Government-funded UK FIRES. Look at the research that governing elites commission and read, not what they say. UK FIRES takes an absolute view of Net Zero and bases its work on existing technologies, not the pie in the sky inventions still to come and the whacky schemes that cannot reach economic scale.
No Beef, Lamb, Milk and Cheese Within 25 Years Under Net Zero, Government-Funded Report Confirms
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
A History of the Alt-Right
Econ Prof at George Mason University, Economic Historian, Québécois
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
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Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
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Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
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Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
The world's most viewed site on global warming and climate change
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Commentary on monetary policy in the spirit of R. G. Hawtrey
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Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
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Reading between the lines, and underneath the hype.
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Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
WORLD WAR II, MUSIC, HISTORY, HOLOCAUST
Undisciplined scholar, recovering academic
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
Res ipsa loquitur - The thing itself speaks
In Hume’s spirit, I will attempt to serve as an ambassador from my world of economics, and help in “finding topics of conversation fit for the entertainment of rational creatures.”
Researching the House of Commons, 1832-1868
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