TweetMegan McArdle writes insightfully about California’s pending proposal to soak the rich. Three slices: These days, legislators generally don’t enact tax hikes so confiscatory that they trigger an immediate, obvious response. They adjust income tax rates by a few percentage points, fiddle with the deductions or impose new levies on some tiny portion of the…
Some Links
Some Links
26 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, entrepreneurship, fiscal policy, human capital, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, Public Choice Tags: California, taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment
SIEPR Economic Summit 2026 | California Wealth Tax
22 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic growth, economic history, entrepreneurship, fiscal policy, history of economic thought, human capital, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, Public Choice, public economics Tags: California, taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment
California in-migration and out-migration
14 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, entrepreneurship, fiscal policy, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, public economics Tags: California, taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment, taxation and labour supply, top 1%
Long-run U.S. population movements have been driven more by natural amenities than by jobs, and California, rich in both uniform and complementary climates, should be a persistent net gainer of domestic migrants. It has instead lost residents to other states every year since about 1990. This paper argues that its amenities are unchanged and that…
California in-migration and out-migration
Immigration Policy and the Two Types of Errors
12 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in human capital, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: economics of immigration
When screening applicants, there are two ways to make a mistake. A Type I error occurs when someone who should be rejected is admitted. A Type II error occurs when someone who should be admitted is rejected. Immigration policy faces this tradeoff. Tightening screening and admission requirements may reduce the first type of error, but…
Immigration Policy and the Two Types of Errors
Pay parity
12 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of regulation, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, poverty and inequality Tags: gender wage gap
Bruce Logan writes – On many issues, it’s hard to discern where Labour and National differ. However, one issue highlights a real difference: the demand for pay equity. Labour supports it; see the Equal Pay Act Amendment 2020. National, at least for now, opposes it; see the Equal Pay Amendment Act 2025. But first, to […]
Pay parity
Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids: 15th-Anniversary Edition
08 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of education, human capital, labour economics, poverty and inequality Tags: behavioral genetics
Greetings from Yellowstone!Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids is the only book I ever wrote that definitely improved the world a lot. A lower-bound estimate is that several hundred extra babies were born as a result — a social value of over a billion dollars. Now a new edition of the book, shipping November 17,…
Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids: 15th-Anniversary Edition
Marianne Bertrand, laureate of the Jean-Jacques Laffont Prize 2019
08 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, econometerics, economic history, economics of education, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality Tags: gender wage gap
The beauty premium doesn’t seem to extend to billionaires
06 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economic history, entrepreneurship, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, poverty and inequality Tags: top 1%
There is a broad literature supporting the existence of a ‘beauty premium’ in labour markets – more attractive workers tend to earn more. There are a number of channels proposed to account for this, including confidence, social or communication skills being higher among more attractive workers, attractive workers sorting into occupations that reward attractiveness, and…
The beauty premium doesn’t seem to extend to billionaires
Rainbow requirements and Treaty obligations: the HR issues that impede productivity but enhance diversity
03 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of regulation, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, poverty and inequality, property rights Tags: employment law
Bob Edlin writes – PoO noted a Newsroom report headed Major export and construction firms warn against legal definition of women. The report draws attention to objections raised to the Legislation (Definitions of Woman and Man) Amendment Bill, which aims to amend the Legislation Act to define “woman” as “an adult human biological female” and […]
Rainbow requirements and Treaty obligations: the HR issues that impede productivity but enhance diversity
America’s Affordability Problem Is Government
02 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in economic growth, economic history, entrepreneurship, financial economics, history of economic thought, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, poverty and inequality Tags: The Great Enrichment, top 1%
I have a series of columns (2021, 2024, 2025, and 2026). documenting that Americans are getting richer. And here’s a chart that adds additional evidence. More and more households over time are high income (over $100k) and fewer and fewer are low income (under $35k). And, yes, these numbers are adjusted for inflation. The chart was […]
America’s Affordability Problem Is Government
Why did efficiency wages fall out of favour – AI explanation part 1
29 Sep 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, history of economic thought, human capital, industrial organisation, international economics, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality, survivor principle, unemployment Tags: efficiency wage
The Economics of a Shrinking World
27 Sep 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, development economics, econometerics, economic history, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, population economics
From Jesus Fernandez-Villaverde and Patrick Norrick: As of 2026, humanity is likely below replacement fertility. That has never happened before, not in wars or pandemics. But the real surprise is that the fall has been concentrated in low- and middle-income countries and among poorer and less educated women. We fit a single-factor model to 236…
The Economics of a Shrinking World
James Buchanan was an unusual neoliberal
26 Sep 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, entrepreneurship, history of economic thought, human capital, income redistribution, James Buchanan, James Buchanan, labour economics, labour supply, Milton Friedman, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, public economics Tags: inheritance tax, taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment
Compensating differentials
25 Sep 2026 Leave a comment
in Adam Smith, applied price theory, health and safety, history of economic thought, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality
The Externalities of Airports and Immigrants
24 Sep 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, transport economics, urban economics Tags: economics of immigration
Are the externalities of airports positive or negative? If you base your answer on NIMBY complaining, the answer is obviously negative. Above all, there’s the noise. The deafening sounds of take-off and landing bedevil everyone who spends time near the airport. On top of that, there’s daily traffic. Not every airport is LAX (in fact,…
The Externalities of Airports and Immigrants
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