https://www.facebook.com/share/HSwmANd4n1zpY48i/?mibextid=xfxF2i
Fashionable backpack and a 1 year warranty too (1985)
22 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in economic history, industrial organisation Tags: creative destruction, Great Enrichment
Google’s strategy of search engine user lock-in
22 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of media and culture, economics of regulation, industrial organisation, politics - USA Tags: competition law
The Financial Times reported earlier this month (paywalled):A US federal judge has ruled that Google spent billions of dollars on exclusive deals to maintain an illegal monopoly on search, in a landmark win for the Department of Justice as it seeks to rein in Big Tech’s market power…The ruling follows a weeks-long trial in which…
Google’s strategy of search engine user lock-in
Why Top CEOs Earn Big Paychecks
22 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, economics of education, entrepreneurship, human capital, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, liberalism, managerial economics, market efficiency, occupational choice, organisational economics, personnel economics, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, survivor principle Tags: CEO pay, superstar wages
CEO compensation at large firms is high, especially in comparison to average worker wages, sparking debates over income inequality. Critics argue that such pay packages are unfair and disproportionate to actual company performance. Proponents contend that high pay reflects productivity and is necessary to attract scarce top talent to large firms. Let’s go to the […]
Why Top CEOs Earn Big Paychecks
Telephone Operators: The Elimination of a Job
20 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in economic growth, economic history, gender, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, market efficiency, occupational choice, survivor principle, unemployment Tags: creative destruction
My tradition on this blog is to take a break (mostly!) from current events in the later part of August. Instead, I pre-schedule daily posts based on things I read during the previous year about three of my preoccupations: economics, editing/writing, and academia. With the posts pre-scheduled, I can then relax more deeply when floating…
Telephone Operators: The Elimination of a Job
Election Rule #1: Don’t Support Your Opponent
19 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in economic history, industrial organisation, macroeconomics, monetary economics, politics - USA Tags: 2024 presidential election, inflation, monetary policy
Who is advising this woman? In what universe do they think she can say this and at the same time fool enough voters that she hasn’t been part of the Biden Administration that has had these price hikes happen on their watch, on her watch. Did they not think that Trump’s campaign would run with […]
Election Rule #1: Don’t Support Your Opponent
Kamala Harris, Price Controls, and the Contest for the Dumbest Policy Proposal of 2024
17 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, energy economics, health economics, history of economic thought, income redistribution, industrial organisation, international economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: 2024 presidential election, price controls, tariffs
As a Senator, Kamala Harris embraced all sorts of terrible ideas, such as the Green New Deal and Medicare for All. But she’s now disavowed those proposals in an attempt to make herself seem more reasonable. Trump, by contrast, is consistent. For better or worse, he’s pushing in 2024 the same agenda that he ran […]
Kamala Harris, Price Controls, and the Contest for the Dumbest Policy Proposal of 2024
Should the government operate petrol stations?
17 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, law and economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, privatisation, property rights
The extent to which the government should be involved in the provision of goods and services generates a lot of debate. Most of that debate is unhelpful, since it involves small-government, market-fundamentalist types arguing against anti-market socialist types. It’s all ideological, and there’s a pretty good chance that neither of the sides in that argument…
Should the government operate petrol stations?
Rampell On Harris’s Economic Policy
17 Aug 2024 1 Comment
in applied price theory, economics of regulation, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, politics - USA Tags: 2024 presidential election
Here is the Washington Post’s Catherine Rampell on Harris’s price control policy: It’s hard to exaggerate how bad this policy is. It is, in all but name, a sweeping set of government-enforced price controls across every industry, not only food. Supply and demand would no longer determine prices or profit levels. Some far-off Washington bureaucrats […]
Rampell On Harris’s Economic Policy
The Creation of Ride-sharing and the Creativity of Markets
10 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economic history, economics of regulation, income redistribution, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, occupational choice, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice, public economics, regulation, rentseeking, survivor principle, theory of the firm Tags: barriers to entry, creative destruction, taxi regulation
The idea behind Uber first arose, the story goes, on a snowy evening in Paris back around 2008, when Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp found themselves stuck in Paris on a snowy evening, unable to find a taxi. They wondered “What if you could request a ride simply by tapping your phone?” They co-founded Uber based…
The Creation of Ride-sharing and the Creativity of Markets
Pervasive myth of centralisation unravels in NZ
06 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economics of bureaucracy, economics of education, health economics, industrial organisation, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, public economics, survivor principle
Oliver Hartwich writes – New Zealand’s government sacked the entire board of Health New Zealand (Te Whatu Ora) last week, replacing it with a sole commissioner. The move marked more than just another shake-up in the country’s beleaguered health system. It signalled the spectacular failure of a grand experiment that has turned New Zealand into […]
Pervasive myth of centralisation unravels in NZ
Olympic Records in Cost Overruns
05 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, industrial organisation, Public Choice, public economics, sports economics, theory of the firm, urban economics Tags: Olympic Games
When a city bids to host the Olympic Games, part of the bid is a commitment that the city or the national government will cover any cost overruns–and experience suggests the cost overruns will be large. Alexander Budzier and Bent Flyvbjerg discuss the patterns in “The Oxford Olympics Study 2024: Are Cost and Cost Overrun…
Olympic Records in Cost Overruns
28 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in economic history, industrial organisation, survivor principle, television Tags: creative destruction
Right to Repair
21 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of information, economics of regulation, industrial organisation, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: consumer protection
The Green Party has a Member’s Bill up arguing for a consumer right of repair; Auckland University’s Alex Sims has written a few columns in support of such a thing. I’d had an email asking about that legislation; figured I’d share my response here – tidied up a bit.If it’s more expensive to produce a product…
Right to Repair
Reporters Blame “Right-Wing Media” for Their Failure to Disclose Biden’s Infirmity
05 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of media and culture, industrial organisation, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, survivor principle Tags: 2024 presidential election, free speech, media bias, political correctness, regressive left
The media is sorry . . . sort of. After the shocking appearance of President Joe Biden in the presidential debate, the public has turned its attention to the press which has, again, buried a major scandal for years. According to CNN, the reporters at the White House are really, really sorry but explained that […]
Reporters Blame “Right-Wing Media” for Their Failure to Disclose Biden’s Infirmity
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
Recent Comments