In my own family, the reverence that we have for the dishwasher (and other time-saving devices) is such that we have a cat named “Josephine” after the Josephine Cochrane–the inventor of the first commercially viable dishwasher. (Also named because, as a kitten, she liked to forage in the back of the dishwasher.) Erin Braid provides…
Dishwashers and the 24/7 Time Constraint
Dishwashers and the 24/7 Time Constraint
22 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, history of economic thought, labour economics, labour supply
Triggernometry debates sex with Neil deGrasse Tyson
18 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of crime, economics of education, gender, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights Tags: free speech, gender gap, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
Here we have the Triggernometry duo (Konstantin Kisin and Francis Foster) questioning astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson about his views on gender (the full interview is here). Tyson seems quite agitated, loud, and even patronizing, but largely misses the points that gender-critical people are making. For example, he begins with his infamous argument that sex (or gender; he…
Triggernometry debates sex with Neil deGrasse Tyson
*The Science of Second Chances*
15 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of crime, economics of education, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, occupational choice Tags: criminal deterrence
The author is economist Jennifer Doleac, and the subtitle is A Revolution in Criminal Justice. Excerpt: We found that adding anyone charged with a felony to the law enforcement DNA database in Denmark reduced future criminal convictions by over 40 percent. Again, people responded to the higher probability of getting caught by committing fewer cimres. …
*The Science of Second Chances*
Another gender gap
15 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, human capital Tags: gender gap
COP30 Dispute Erupts over the Legal Definition of a Woman
14 Nov 2025 1 Comment
in discrimination, economics of climate change, economics of natural disasters, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, gender, global warming, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, property rights
One of the goals of the COP30 climate conference is helping women allegedly affected by climate change.
COP30 Dispute Erupts over the Legal Definition of a Woman
BBC Finds Presenter in Violation of Network Standards in Correcting “Pregnant People” Reference on Air
09 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, television Tags: free speech, media bias, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
There is a controversy at the BBC over a correction made by presenter Martine Croxall on air when she changed a reference to “pregnant people” to “women.” The network later received 20 complaints and agreed that Croxall had violated network policies. (For full disclosure, I previously worked as the legal analyst for BBC).
BBC Finds Presenter in Violation of Network Standards in Correcting “Pregnant People” Reference on Air
Some Links
09 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of education, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, politics - USA
TweetPhil Magness and Mike Ferguson discuss the recent oral arguments in the U.S. Supreme Court case against Trump’s use of IEEPA to impose tariffs. National Review‘s Dan McLaughlin dives deeply into what’s now on the U.S. Supreme Court’s plate regarding Trump’s IEEPA tariffs. Two slices: There are, however, two related problems for the government with…
Some Links
Supreme Court Issues Major Opinion on Transgender Identity and the Trump Passport Policy
09 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights Tags: free speech, gender gap, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
In a significant win for the Trump Administration, the United States Supreme Court issued an opinion on Thursday afternoon on the Trump Administration’s requirement that passport holders use their sex assigned at birth and that such requirements do not violate equal protection guarantees. While a brief, unsigned opinion issued on the interim docket, it represents […]
Supreme Court Issues Major Opinion on Transgender Identity and the Trump Passport Policy
The Impact of Jury Race in Criminal Trials
31 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, econometerics, economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: crime and punishment, law and order, racial discrimination
In a great paper, The Impact of Jury Race in Criminal Trials, Shamena Anwar, Patrick Bayer and Randi Hjalmarsson exploit random variation in the jury pool to estimate the effect of race on criminal trials. The authors have data from nearly 800 trials in two Florida counties. On any given day, a jury pool is randomly […]
The Impact of Jury Race in Criminal Trials
The erosion of medical journals
30 Oct 2025 1 Comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, liberalism, Marxist economics Tags: political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
Of all the papers in the special issue of the Journal of Controversial Ideas on censorship in science, the one below is perhaps the most important, as the censorship being imposed can cause permanent damage to humans. I’ve described this censorship before: it involves papers on or critiques of extreme claims of gender ideologues, especially […]
The erosion of medical journals
Part IV: Yes, Taxes Change Behavior
22 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, fiscal policy, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, Public Choice, public economics Tags: taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment, taxation and labour supply
There can be honest and constructive debates about the size of government, such as when I cross swords with someone on the left who understands Arthur Okun’s efficiency-equity tradeoff. Another legitimate debate is about the impact of tax policy, specifically whether higher or lower tax rates have big effects or small effects. But to have […]
Part IV: Yes, Taxes Change Behavior
Devolution and Development
18 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, development economics, economics of regulation, labour economics, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, urban economics Tags: Canada
An interesting research note from Eric Crampton and at the NZ Initiative on the benefits of devolution on development. It details how Canadian First Nations have transformed their economic fortunes and have built thousands of new homes after gaining powers for planning, zoning, tax, and infrastructure finance. A couple of examples: The Squamish Nation’s 6,000-apartment […]
Devolution and Development
Ten Modest Proposals to End the Gender Pay Gap
17 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, economics of crime, economics of education, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, occupational choice, politics - USA Tags: gender wage gap
An anonymous Swiftian guest essay
Ten Modest Proposals to End the Gender Pay Gap
The Question of Disproportionate Black Imprisonment
16 Oct 2025 1 Comment
in applied price theory, economics of crime, labour economics, law and economics
One of the most persistent concerns in contemporary criminal justice debates is the disproportionately high number of black people in prison, particularly in countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. At first glance, this imbalance is often assumed to indicate systemic bias or racial discrimination within courts and law enforcement. Yet […]
The Question of Disproportionate Black Imprisonment
Is the earned income tax overrated?
09 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of education, human capital, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, Public Choice, public economics, welfare reform Tags: taxation and labour supply
This policy has been so popular with economists on a bipartisan basis, yet a recent piece in ReStud raises some doubts, as the wage subsidies induce many to drop out of school: As a complement to the federal earned income tax credit (EITC), some states offer their own EITC, typically calculated as a percentage of […]
Is the earned income tax overrated?
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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