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
Job fatality and injury risk, and compensating differentials
25 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, econometerics, health and safety, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice
Last week, my ECONS102 class covered health economics. Part of that topic involves discussion of approaches to measuring the ‘value of a preventable fatality’ (sometimes also called the ‘value of a statistical life’, or VSL). One of those approaches is the willingness-to-pay (WTP) approach, which involves estimating what people would be willing to pay in…
Job fatality and injury risk, and compensating differentials
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
Defining the Unemployment Rate
22 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in business cycles, history of economic thought, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, unemployment
An updated version of our Marginal Revolution University (MRU) video on defining the unemployment rate. Free to use for anyone but goes best, of course, with Modern Principles of Economics, the best principles of economics textbook. The post Defining the Unemployment Rate appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.
Defining the Unemployment Rate
World Cup pay gap: Here’s why it’s justified | FACTUAL FEMINIST
20 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, gender, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, poverty and inequality, sports economics Tags: gender wage gap
China fact (?) of the day
15 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in development economics, growth miracles, health economics, labour economics, labour supply, population economics Tags: China
A monograph by Yi Fuxian, a University of Wisconsin-Madison demographer and longtime critic of China’s population policies, argues that China’s actual population may be closer to 1.27 billion—not the 1.4 billion officially reported. The gap would be as much as 130 million people, roughly the population of Mexico. And Yi argues the distortion has warped…
China fact (?) of the day
Predictable
15 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, Economics of international refugee law, International law, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, laws of war, war and peace Tags: British politics, Gaza Strip, Middle-East politics, war against terror
LBC reports: An investigation has revealed that a man known only as ‘Mr X’ worked as a personal bodyguard for Ismail Haniyeh, who was Hamas’ leader in Gaza between 2007 and 2017. He then successfully applied for asylum and eventually indefinite leave to remain in the UK, and was able to plot an antisemitic attack…
Predictable
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
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
Welfare missing from 2026 election
07 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in labour economics, labour supply, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, poverty and inequality, welfare reform Tags: 2026 general election
Lindsay Mitchell writes – Welfare is markedly missing from 2026 election campaign issues.There’s been far more debate about Super: its cost, means-testing and the age of eligibility. New Zealand is an outlier. Australia, the UK and the US have a qualifying age of 67. Whether NZ joins must be decided. Super isn’t sustainable. But what […]
Welfare missing from 2026 election
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