Prize lecture: David Card, Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences …
30 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economic history, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, minimum wage, unemployment
Unscheduled Battery Blowups Turning Electric Vehicles Into Mobile Time Bombs
24 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, health and safety, labour economics
The transition to electric vehicles is hardly going to plan: sales have collapsed in the US, EV manufacturers are bleeding cash and insurers are cranking up premiums to account for an uptick in the number of unscheduled battery blowups – aka ‘thermal runaways’. The vehicle doesn’t go anywhere, it simply self-immolates in a plume of […]
Unscheduled Battery Blowups Turning Electric Vehicles Into Mobile Time Bombs
Effective marginal tax rates, and work incentives for older people
24 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
in labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, public economics
Tax rates matter for work incentives. When tax rates are high, there is less incentive for people to work. They may pass up additional work and choose leisure time instead. However, it isn’t just taxes that matter. It is the loss of other entitlements as well. All of these are bound up in what is…
Effective marginal tax rates, and work incentives for older people
AASLE 2021 Bob Gregory Lecture – Claudia Goldin
23 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, discrimination, econometerics, economic history, economics of education, economics of information, gender, health and safety, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice Tags: gender wage gap, sex discrimination
My Chris Williamson Interview
23 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, discrimination, economic history, economics of education, gender, health and safety, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, liberalism, occupational choice, poverty and inequality Tags: gender wage gap, sex discrimination
Several good friends warned me not to publish Don’t Be a Feminist. I appreciate their concern, but I’m glad I kept my own counsel. Here’s my interview with Chris Williamson on the book and beyond. Apparently he’s kind of a big deal…
My Chris Williamson Interview
How Socialist is Sweden?
19 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
in income redistribution, labour economics, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, public economics Tags: Sweden
During our Capitalism versus Socialism debate, Scott Sehon argued that Scandinavia really is quite socialist. Since I’m not on expect on Scandinavia, I asked Johan Norberg, author of the short book The Mirage of Swedish Socialism, as well as the recent The Capitalist Manifesto, to weigh in. Norberg kindly agreed. With great interest I have…
How Socialist is Sweden?
George Selgin on the New Deal and Recovery (and Relief and Reform)
18 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
in budget deficits, business cycles, economic growth, economic history, fiscal policy, great depression, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, monetary economics, unemployment
TweetWant to get a few hours’ worth of solid learning in less than 35 enjoyable minutes? Listen to my Mercatus Center colleague David Beckworth’s podcast (from October 2022) with George Selgin on the New Deal. Seriously. It will be 34-plus minutes very well spent. George’s book – False Dawn – is forthcoming from the University…
George Selgin on the New Deal and Recovery (and Relief and Reform)
America’s top one percent has not been seeing a rising income share
18 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
in labour economics, Public Choice, entrepreneurship, human capital, occupational choice, public economics, income redistribution, labour supply, economic history, poverty and inequality Tags: top 1%
That is the topic of my latest Bloomberg column. The opener is this: Can a single self-published paper really refute decades of work by three famous economists? If the paper is the modestly titled “Income Inequality in the United States: Using Tax Data to Measure Long-Term Trends,” then the answer — with qualifications — is yes. And…
America’s top one percent has not been seeing a rising income share
Queensland University of Technology completely ditches merit-based hiring, favoring gender, “looks”, and personality
18 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality Tags: affirmative action, sex discrimination
This gem of a story is about how one Aussie university went to the logical endpoint of the diversity-trumps-merit controversy: Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane is apparently about to hire solely on the basis of diversity, and has erased any mention of the word “merit” in its hiring policy. This of course is ridiculous, […]
Queensland University of Technology completely ditches merit-based hiring, favoring gender, “looks”, and personality
On the 50th anniversary of the DPB
16 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
in economics of education, gender, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality, welfare reform Tags: economics of fertility, marriage and divorce
The Domestic Purposes Benefit has been variously described as a “disaster” (David McLoughlin 1995), an “economic lifeline” (Jane Kelsey 1995) and “an unfortunate experiment” (Muriel Newman 2009).Its effect on family formation can never be definitively ascertained. But the growth of the sole parent family dependent on welfare has correlated with more poverty, more child abuse…
On the 50th anniversary of the DPB
Boys are faster
15 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, sports economics Tags: political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative | Hoover Institution
15 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, budget deficits, business cycles, economic growth, economic history, fiscal policy, global financial crisis (GFC), great depression, great recession, history of economic thought, inflation targeting, labour economics, macroeconomics, Milton Friedman, monetarism, monetary economics, unemployment Tags: monetary policy
Jennifer Burns on Milton Friedman 11/13/23
14 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, business cycles, comparative institutional analysis, econometerics, economic history, economics of education, economics of regulation, fiscal policy, great depression, history of economic thought, labour economics, liberalism, libertarianism, macroeconomics, Milton Friedman, monetarism, monetary economics Tags: monetary policy
Police versus Prisons
13 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, economics of crime, Gary Becker, history of economic thought, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, occupational choice
Here’s a remarkable graph from the Council of Economic Advisers report on incarceration and the criminal justice system. The graph shows that the United States employs many more prison guards per-capita than does the rest of the world. Given our prison population that isn’t surprising. What is surprising is that on a per-capita basis we employ 35% […]
Police versus Prisons
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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