The super-rich are super-mobile. So, if a country decides to increase taxes on the super-rich (for example, with a wealth tax), some (but not all) of the super-rich will simply move elsewhere. This should not be a surprise to anyone. And yet, simplistic proposals to tax the super-rich are a favourite policy for some political…
Newsflash! The super-rich are mobile, and higher taxes incentivise them to move away
Newsflash! The super-rich are mobile, and higher taxes incentivise them to move away
25 Sep 2025 1 Comment
in applied price theory, human capital, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, Public Choice, public economics Tags: taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment
Michael Clemens on H1-B visas
24 Sep 2025 1 Comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economic growth, economic history, entrepreneurship, human capital, international economics, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, politics - USA Tags: economics of immigration
From 1990 to 2010, rising numbers of H-1B holders caused 30–50 percent of all productivity growth in the US economy. This means that the jobs and wages of most Americans depend in some measure on these workers. The specialized workers who enter on this visa fuel high-tech, high-growth sectors of the 21st century economy with skills like computer […]
Michael Clemens on H1-B visas
The evolution of the economics job market
24 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of education, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, managerial economics, occupational choice, organisational economics, personnel economics
In the halcyon days of 2015-19, openings on the economics job market hovered at around 1900 per year. In 2020, Covid was a major shock, but the market bounced back quickly in 2021 and 2022. Since then, though, the market has clearly been in a funk. 2023, my job market year, saw a sudden dip […]
The evolution of the economics job market
Pro-worker changes to Holidays Act
23 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in labour economics, labour supply, politics - New Zealand
Labour, Greens and the media would have you believe the changes to Holidays Act are some sort of assault on workers. In fact, they generally improve things for employees. The CTU, to be fair, has been quite balanced with their comments – unlike the hysteria from Labour and Greens. The case for change is massive. […]
Pro-worker changes to Holidays Act
Samuelson on forecasting as a vocation
23 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in budget deficits, business cycles, economic growth, fiscal policy, human capital, labour economics, macroeconomics, occupational choice Tags: forecasting errors
German political parties remain too far from the median voter
21 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in international economic law, international economics, International law, labour economics, labour supply, politics, Public Choice Tags: economics of immigration, Germany
Our estimates indicate that the AfD’s vote share would shrink by as much as 75% if the CDU adopted its immigration stance. These results suggest that the electoral success of populist parties is strongly linked to genuine policy preferences, rather than being driven solely by dissatisfaction with political elites or protest voting. That is from […]
German political parties remain too far from the median voter
In defence of inequality
20 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of education, human capital, poverty and inequality
An excellent speech by the President of the University of Austin on inequality: But on the heels of America’s quarter-millennium since the Declaration of Independence, I want to do something a bit unfashionable: I want to defend inequality. Of course, all men are created equal. But all men are not the same. We have unequal…
In defence of inequality
Moving on Up
18 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of education, human capital, labour economics, poverty and inequality, welfare reform
James Heckman and Sadegh Eshaghnia have launched a broadside in the WSJ against the Chetty-Hendren paper The Impacts of Neighborhoods on Intergenerational Mobility I: Childhood Exposure Effects. It’s a little odd to see this in the WSJ but since the Chetty-Hendren paper has been widely reported in the media, I suppose this is fair game. […]
Moving on Up
The United States vs. Europe, Part IV
17 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic growth, economic history, economics of regulation, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: European Union
I put a lot of focus on “convergence” and “divergence” because economic theory says rich countries should not grow faster than poor countries. So when there are examples of divergence, especially when looking at decades of data, we can learn very important lessons about economic policy. Those lessons, in every single case, teach us that […]
The United States vs. Europe, Part IV
Ferris doubled down on his racism
16 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in discrimination, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: racial discrimination
The Herald reports: Te Pāti Māori MP Tākuta Ferris has doubled down on social media comments he made last week which led to “racist” allegations and an apology from his party. In a new Instagram video, Ferris said it is “unacceptable” for people of other ethnicities to campaign to “take a Māori seat from the […]
Ferris doubled down on his racism
Short (?) review: “Sex is a spectrum”
16 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, property rights Tags: Age of Enlightenment, free speech, gender gap, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
Reading time: Whatever. . . You’ll probably guess from the title of this short (150-page) book by Agustín Fuentes (Princeton University Press) that I am not keen on its thesis, and you’d be right. In fact, the thesis is nothing new, even if you have read Fuentes’s article about it in Natural History and Scientific […]
Short (?) review: “Sex is a spectrum”
Predistribution, Not Redistribution, in the Nordic Countries
15 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic growth, economics of education, fiscal policy, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking Tags: Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden
Maybe it’s just because I live in Minnesota, a state where the differences between immigrants from Sweden, Norway, and Finland are still apparent in the names of towns and the surnames of people. But when I run into people who would prefer that the US distribution of income be more equal, they often point to…
Predistribution, Not Redistribution, in the Nordic Countries
A labour law reform that works for workers
14 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, personnel economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: employment law
Roger Partridge writes – Every day, New Zealand workers clock longer hours than their peers in most developed nations yet produce far less value per hour worked. This productivity paradox has haunted our economy for decades, condemning workers to lower wages and longer working days. Now, Parliament has a chance to help change this cycle. […]
A labour law reform that works for workers
Red Tape and Unintended Consequences
13 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, environmental economics, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, occupational regulation, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: France
I’ve written endlessly about the negative effect of high tax rates on productive behavior, as well as some quirky examples of how taxes lead to some unintended consequences. Today, let’s consider how government regulations distort behavior. We’ll start with a video from Reason about government policies that backfire. In this case, note the second example. […]
Red Tape and Unintended Consequences
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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