By Eva Vivalt, Elizabeth Rhodes, Alexander W. Bartik, David E. Broockman, Sarah Miller, Here is the link, but I am still sleeping. Here is the abstract: We study the causal impacts of income on a rich array of employment outcomes, leveraging an experiment in which 1,000 low-income individuals were randomized into receiving $1,000 per month […]
The employment effects of a guaranteed income
The employment effects of a guaranteed income
23 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality Tags: basic income
The Evolving Economic Role of Women: Goldin’s Nobel Lecture
29 Jun 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economic history, economics of education, gender, history of economic thought, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, politics - USA, poverty and inequality Tags: gender wage gap, sex discrimination

Claudia Goldin’s Nobel prize lecture, “An Evolving Economic Force,” has now been published in the June 2024 issue of the American Economic Review. Or if you prefer, you can watch the watch the lecture (with more numerous slides!) from the link at the Nobel website. She writes: Women are now at the center of the…
The Evolving Economic Role of Women: Goldin’s Nobel Lecture
Health and Safety laws
23 Jun 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, economics of regulation, health and safety, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, occupational choice, politics - New Zealand
Peter Dunne writes – In 2016 New Zealand instituted comprehensive new health and safety laws for workplaces and other areas of activity. The expectation was that the new regime the legislation introduced would dramatically improve the culture and practice around safety in the workplace, reduce the numbers of accidents and save lives. However, the most […]
Health and Safety laws
Extraordinary Labor Market Developments and the 2022-23 Disinflation
19 Jun 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, labour economics, labour supply, market efficiency, occupational choice, personnel economics Tags: working from home
From a new NBER working paper by Steven J. Davis: Two extraordinary U.S. labor market developments facilitated the sharp disinflation in 2022-23 without raising the unemployment rate. First, pandemic-driven infection worries and social distancing intentions caused a sizable drag on labor force participation that began to reverse in the first quarter of 2022, and perhaps […]
Extraordinary Labor Market Developments and the 2022-23 Disinflation
College premium
18 Jun 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of education, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality, unemployment Tags: graduate premium
More impatient people are more likely to commit crime
09 Jun 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economics of crime, economics of education, labour economics, law and economics, occupational choice Tags: cognitive psychology, crime and punishment, criminal deterrence, law and order
Gary Becker’s famous model of rational crime suggests that criminals weigh up the costs and benefits of crime (and engage in a criminal act if the benefits outweigh the costs). Time preferences matter in this model, because the benefits of a criminal act are usually realised immediately, whereas the greatest costs (including the penalties of…
More impatient people are more likely to commit crime
The 2024 Hayek Lecture: Phil Gramm & John Early on “The Myth of American…
04 Jun 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, economic history, economics of education, entrepreneurship, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, politics - USA, poverty and inequality
The Patriarchy Must Be Smashed
26 May 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economic history, economics of education, economics of information, gender, health and safety, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality Tags: gender wage gap, sex discrimination

And it looks like it’s well on the way to being so, given these interesting stats out of the USA. I’d love to know how New Zealand compares in many of these categories One more generation should see large numbers of these well-educated female graduates rising to high levels of private and public sector power. […]
The Patriarchy Must Be Smashed
Almost Observable Human Capital
24 May 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, economics of education, history of economic thought, human capital, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice

Previously, we could observe a higher proportion of men than women in, say, steel fabrication and suspect that men have “some sort” of physical or mental comparative advantage related to steel fabrication. But what does that mean?
Almost Observable Human Capital
Wage setting explained
23 May 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of education, economics of information, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, managerial economics, market efficiency, occupational choice, organisational economics, personnel economics
Debunking Bad Class Warfare and Debunking Nonsensical Class Warfare
19 May 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, economics of education, entrepreneurship, human capital, income redistribution, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, Public Choice Tags: taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment

Like Thomas Piketty, Gabriel Zucman is a French economist who promotes economically destructive class-warfare tax policy. He’s also infamous for dodgy data manipulation, as Phil Magness explains in this Reason discussion. The interview lasts for 64 minutes, and I recommend the entire discussion. Yes, that’s a lot of time, but Phil has encyclopedic knowledge and […]
Debunking Bad Class Warfare and Debunking Nonsensical Class Warfare
Diverse MBA teams perform worse
14 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, economics of education, entrepreneurship, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality Tags: gender wage gap, sex discrimination
From “Diversity and Performance in Entrepreneurial Teams” (SSRN): Among the randomly-assigned teams [of MBA students], greater diversity along the intersection of gender and race/ethnicity significantly reduced performance. However, the negative effect of this diversity is alleviated … [when teams can choose their teammates]…teams with more female members perform substantially better when their faculty section leader was also…
Diverse MBA teams perform worse
Handbag authenticators (creative destruction and how the economy just keeps creating new types of occupations & professions)
10 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, development economics, economics of information, human capital, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality Tags: consumer fraud, creative destruction
I’ve posted about many new jobs like this. See related posts below. Also, this post is based on yesterday’s post You Spent $6,000 on a Secondhand Chanel Bag. Now Find Out if It Is Real. It had excerpts from an article by Chavie Lieber of The WSJ. Here are excerpts related to today’s post:”Many secondhand luxury shoppers…
Handbag authenticators (creative destruction and how the economy just keeps creating new types of occupations & professions)
A Conversation with Gary Becker
10 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, behavioural economics, comparative institutional analysis, discrimination, economic history, economics of education, economics of information, Gary Becker, gender, history of economic thought, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality
Harris’ Major Malfunction
09 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of education, economics of media and culture, health economics, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality Tags: behavioural genetics

Judith Harris’ The Nurture Assumption was a huge influence on me, and the top inspiration for my Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids. Her book’s first main lesson is that family resemblance, defined in the broadest possible way to include physical, psychological, and social outcomes, is mostly driven by genetics rather than upbringing. Her book’s…
Harris’ Major Malfunction


Recent Comments