WSJ: Europe is Losing Europeans live longer, have more leisure time and less income inequality, and often live in stunning cities and towns built over the centuries. But increasingly, Americans enjoy a higher standard of living. They have over 50% more living space on average per person. More than four in five Americans have air…
Why is Europe Falling Behind?
Why is Europe Falling Behind?
23 Aug 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic growth, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics Tags: European Union
Why I disagree with Helen Clark
20 Aug 2025 1 Comment
in economics of education, labour economics, labour supply, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, welfare reform Tags: child poverty, family poverty
According to the NZ Herald this morning: “Former Prime Minister Helen Clark has described the departure of former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern from politics as “devastating for women around the world”.” Not this one. But then very little devastates me beyond the loss of a loved person or pet. Or dwelling on the suffering of…
Why I disagree with Helen Clark
The Greens’ weekend gift to the government
19 Aug 2025 Leave a comment
in economic growth, entrepreneurship, fiscal policy, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, public economics Tags: taxation and entrepreneurship, wealth tax
Roger Partridge writes – The Greens’ coronation of Chlöe Swarbrick at last weekend’s AGM delivered a manifesto for economic transformation that would make Soviet economists nostalgic for their glory days.
The Greens’ weekend gift to the government
Dude, Whatever Happened to Difference Feminism?
17 Aug 2025 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice Tags: gender gap, sex discrimination
Time to Revive an Out of Fashion Idea
Dude, Whatever Happened to Difference Feminism?
A median voter theory of right-wing populism
16 Aug 2025 1 Comment
in labour economics, labour supply, Public Choice Tags: voter demographics
From a recent paper: Populists are often defined as those who claim that they fill “political representation gaps” -differences between the policymaking by established parties and the “popular will.” Research has largely neglected to what extent this claim is correct. I study descriptively whether representation gaps exist and their relationship with populism. To this end, I analyze […]
A median voter theory of right-wing populism
The US Auto Industry: Evolving, not Evaporating
09 Aug 2025 Leave a comment
in economic history, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, survivor principle, transport economics, urban economics
One of those facts that “everyone knows” is that the US auto industry has been crushed by foreign competition. As Adam Ozimek points out in “Myths and Lessons from a Century of American Automaking” (Economic Innovation Institute, August 1, 2025), while the US car industry certainly no longer features large manufacturing plants in the city…
The US Auto Industry: Evolving, not Evaporating
The Tragedy of India’s Government-Job Prep Towns
04 Aug 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, development economics, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, growth disasters, growth miracles, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, Public Choice Tags: India
In Massive Rent-Seeking in India’s Government Job Examination System I argued that the high value of government jobs has distorted India’s entire labor market and educational system. India’s most educated young people—precisely those it needs in the workforce—are devoting years of their life cramming for government exams instead of working productively. These exams cultivate no […]
The Tragedy of India’s Government-Job Prep Towns
CA min wage goes up ==> CA employment declines
29 Jul 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, minimum wage, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking, unemployment Tags: California
The classic book, Economics in One Lesson reduces all of economics to a similar lesson:The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups.The lesson of Chapter…
CA min wage goes up ==> CA employment declines
Horseshoe Theory: Trump and the Progressive Left
26 Jul 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of regulation, history of economic thought, income redistribution, international economics, International law, labour economics, labour supply, Marxist economics, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: 2024 presidential election, regressive left, tarrifs
Many of Trump’s signature policies overlap with those of the American progressive left—e.g. tariffs, economic nationalism, immigration restrictions, deep distrust of elite institutions, and an eagerness to use the power of the state. Trump governs less like Reagan, more like Perón. As Ryan Bourne notes, this ideological convergence has led many on the progressive left […]
Horseshoe Theory: Trump and the Progressive Left
Labor supply is elastic!
19 Jul 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, labour economics, labour supply Tags: Denmark, taxation and labour supply
Even in Denmark: We investigate long-run earnings responses to taxes in the presence of dynamic returns to effort. First, we develop a theoretical model of earnings determination with dynamic returns to effort. In this model, earnings responses are delayed and mediated by job switches. Second, using administrative data from Denmark, we verify our model’s predictions […]
Labor supply is elastic!
Immigrant Assimilation Is Obviously High
19 Jul 2025 Leave a comment
in labour economics, labour supply, politics - USA, population economics Tags: economics of immigration
I recently argued that self-reports understate the personality gender gap. As long as some men rate their personalities relative to the average male, and some women rate their personalities relative to the average female, the gap the data reveal is less than the true gap. 798 more words
Immigrant Assimilation Is Obviously High
Woman of the day
18 Jul 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, discrimination, economic history, gender, labour economics, labour supply Tags: France, gender wage gap, sex discrimination
OTD in 1965, France changed the law to allow married women the right to work without their husbands’ permission. Yes, really. To mark the occasion, Woman of the Day is journalist Madeleine Riffaud, French Resistance, who didn’t need any man’s permission to fight for her country.… pic.twitter.com/nlp3f2GIsK — The Attagirls (@TheAttagirls) July 13, 2025
Woman of the day
The population bust
15 Jul 2025 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic history, labour economics, labour supply, population economics Tags: ageing society, economics of fertility, population bust
Expanding the Milei Miracle: Labor Market Deregulation
12 Jul 2025 1 Comment
in development economics, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, growth disasters, labour economics, labour supply, Public Choice Tags: Argentina, employment law
Part I of this video series gave a brief summary of how Javier Milei’s free market policies have rejuvenated Argentina’s economy. But more reform is needed and this second video makes the case for labor market deregulation. Politicians impose so-called employment protection laws because of “public choice.” To be more specific, they understand that the […]
Expanding the Milei Miracle: Labor Market Deregulation
Govt fiscal constraints are the elephant in the pay equity room
11 Jul 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, fiscal policy, gender, human capital, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking Tags: gender wage gap, pay equity, sex discrimination
Michael Johnston writes – The way the government went about rolling back 33 pay equity claims lodged under the last government’s Pay Equity legislation was clumsy at best. The changes were made under urgency and applied retrospectively. It was not a good look. Predictable howls of rage and furious accusations ensued. Critics say the government […]
Govt fiscal constraints are the elephant in the pay equity room
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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