Is new technology that replaces a worker a good thing? We have a tendency, it seems to me, to believe that most previous inventions turned out to have overall net social benefits, but to be worried that all future inventions will instead have overall net social costs. Philipp Ager and Davide Coluccia tackle the question of…
Did the Sewing Machine Reduce the Workload for Women?
Did the Sewing Machine Reduce the Workload for Women?
10 Sep 2026 1 Comment
in discrimination, economic growth, economic history, economics of education, gender, history of economic thought, human capital, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, occupational choice, poverty and inequality, technological progress Tags: creative destruction, The Great Enrichment
Audrey on Te Pati Maori’s bottom line
04 Sep 2026 Leave a comment
in constitutional political economy, discrimination, law and economics, liberalism, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: 2026 general election, constitutional, law, racial discrimination
Audrey Young writes: Te Pāti Māori not only released a radical Treaty of Waitangi policy this week that would upend New Zealand’s democracy as we know it, co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said the whole policy was a bottom line, meaning it was non-negotiable. That means Te Pāti Māori would not sign up to a centre-left Government unless it…
Audrey on Te Pati Maori’s bottom line
Gloria Steinem died
04 Sep 2026 Leave a comment
in discrimination, gender, politics - USA
I guess I’m at the time of life when all my heroes are dying off, because of course they were older than I and I’m no spring chicken. The latest to leave the planet is Gloria Steinem, who died yesterday at 92. Activist, feminist, one of the big figures of “second wave feminism” that promoted…
Gloria Steinem died
Abdul El-Sayed and the Piker Problem
29 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of crime, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: free speech, Israel, Middle-East politics, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left, war against terror
There was a curious moment this week when Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed expressed shock that people were asking him…
Abdul El-Sayed and the Piker Problem
Opportunity knocks
27 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in discrimination, gender, politics - New Zealand Tags: 2026 general election
Good vibes all round – unless you’re a woman. It’s fair to say that the leader of the revamped Opportunity Party Quilae Wong is the best looking of all the political leaders contesting the 2026 New Zealand election.
Opportunity knocks
College-educated women have maintained stable marriage rates by partnering with high-earning non-college men, shrinking the pool of economically viable partners available to non-college women
24 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, econometerics, economics of love and marriage, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, occupational choice, population economics, poverty and inequality
See Gender Disparities in College Enrollment and Marriage Patterns by Clara Chambers, Benjamin Goldman & Joseph Winkelmann.”Over the past half-century, the gender composition of American college campuses has shifted from predominantly male to predominantly female. Today, 1.6 million more women than men attend four-year colleges in the US. Over the same time period, the economic status…
College-educated women have maintained stable marriage rates by partnering with high-earning non-college men, shrinking the pool of economically viable partners available to non-college women
The effects of remote work on the disability employment gap
17 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in discrimination, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, transport economics, urban economics Tags: gender wage gap, sex discrimination
A rise in work from home explains most of the postpandemic gain in full-time employment among people with physical disabilitiesBy Tyler Smith. “Employment among people with disabilities has remained well below that of the broader population, with an average disability employment gap of 27 percentage points across OECD countries. In the United States, this low disability…
The effects of remote work on the disability employment gap
Alex Tabarrok: Britain’s equal pay madness
16 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, discrimination, economics of education, gender, health and safety, human capital, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality Tags: affirmative action, gender wage gap, pay equity, sex discrimination
The Taliban, Women and the Far Left
15 Aug 2026 1 Comment
in defence economics, discrimination, economics of education, economics of religion, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, war and peace Tags: Afghanistan
It is five years today since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. On 15 August 2021, its forces entered Kabul as the Afghan government collapsed and the long Western intervention came to an ignominious end. Five years later, the consequences for Afghan women are appalling. The Taliban has issued more than 100 decrees restricting the […]
The Taliban, Women and the Far Left
The Lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith: A Dark Mirror of American History
07 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economic history, economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: racial discrimination
On the night of August 7, 1930, the small city of Marion, Indiana became the site of one of the most infamous and haunting episodes of racial violence in American history—the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith. What makes this event particularly searing in the American consciousness isn’t just the brutality of the act. […]
The Lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith: A Dark Mirror of American History
New Zealand shows how to solve the equal pay crisis
07 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, economic history, economics of regulation, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality Tags: gender wage gap
Outgoing governments often try to craft a legacy for themselves by introducing policy traps that incoming governments find hard to undo, such as Rishi Sunak’s National Insurance cuts in 2024 or Gordon Brown’s introduction of the 50p top rate of income tax in 2010. Keir Starmer just did something similar by initiating a huge expansion in the […]
New Zealand shows how to solve the equal pay crisis
The New McCarthys: Forty Percent of Professors Would Vote Against Hiring a Trump Voter
06 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, human capital, labour economics, politics - USA Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left
According to a new survey, roughly 40 percent of college faculty would “oppose hiring a Trump supporter.” The results of…
The New McCarthys: Forty Percent of Professors Would Vote Against Hiring a Trump Voter
My Quillette review of Steve Stewart-Williams’s new book on sex differences in humans
02 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, liberalism, Marxist economics Tags: political correctness, regressive left
Steve Stewart-Williams has recently published an informative and readable new book (link at the screenshot just below), and my 4000-word review of it for Quillette just appeared (click second screenshot below for the review): As I implied, my review is laudatory, with only a few (really one) reservations, which is minor. It’s not a “page…
My Quillette review of Steve Stewart-Williams’s new book on sex differences in humans
RODNEY HIDE: The Strange New Face of Women’s Empowerment
30 Jul 2026 1 Comment
in discrimination, economics of religion, gender, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics Tags: political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
Here is a single image that captures the extent to which we are lost. Khadija Patel stands at the Palace of Westminster, recipient of the British Citizen Award 2026 for her “work empowering young women.” She is covered from head to toe. Only her eyes are visible. The official caption celebrates her as a champion…
RODNEY HIDE: The Strange New Face of Women’s Empowerment
Criminal “Villification”: Australia Court Upholds Conviction, Massive Fine, and Compelled Speech in Transgender Case
29 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of regulation, gender, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - Australia, politics - USA, property rights Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
We have followed the evisceration of free speech values in the United Kingdom and other Western nations. Australia has been…
Criminal “Villification”: Australia Court Upholds Conviction, Massive Fine, and Compelled Speech in Transgender Case
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