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
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
30 May 2024 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, economics of information, managerial economics, organisational economics, personnel economics
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
Charter Schools are a worthwhile addition to our school system – but ACT is mis-selling why they are Good and Labour is mis-selling why they are Bad.
22 May 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of education, managerial economics, organisational economics, personnel economics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice
We know the old saying, “Never trust a politician”, and the Charter School debate is a good example of it. Charter Schools receive public funding, yet “are exempt from most statutory requirements of traditional public schools, including mandates around .. human capital management .. curriculum & instructional practices, and governance & management structures”. That’s a…
Charter Schools are a worthwhile addition to our school system – but ACT is mis-selling why they are Good and Labour is mis-selling why they are Bad.
Hiring discrimination sentences to ponder
23 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, econometerics, economics of education, economics of information, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, managerial economics, organisational economics, personnel economics, politics - USA, poverty and inequality Tags: gender wage gap, implicit bias, racial discrimination, sex discrimination
Several common measures — like employing a chief diversity officer, offering diversity training or having a diverse board — were not correlated with decreased discrimination in entry-level hiring, the researchers found. But one thing strongly predicted less discrimination: a centralized H.R. operation. The researchers recorded the voice mail messages that the fake applicants received. When a company’s […]
Hiring discrimination sentences to ponder
Agent-principal conflicts
18 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, economics of information, economics of media and culture, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, managerial economics, organisational economics, personnel economics Tags: agency costs, asymmetric information, moral hazard, screening
No Knife But A Bloodletting Nevertheless.
15 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of media and culture, industrial organisation, managerial economics, market efficiency, organisational economics, personnel economics, politics - New Zealand, privatisation, Public Choice, public economics, survivor principle Tags: media bias
Hosking went after Radio New Zealand this morning and it was bad.The Mike Hosking Breakfast, 0600 till 0900 has three producer/support staff, Radio NZ Morning report has 16 production staff to cover the same five day time slot, yet the state run highly subsidised show falls way behind in ratings.. That 16 figure for production […]
No Knife But A Bloodletting Nevertheless.
TV layoffs not a threat to democracy
10 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of information, economics of media and culture, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, income redistribution, industrial organisation, managerial economics, market efficiency, organisational economics, personnel economics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking, survivor principle, theory of the firm Tags: media bias
A few weeks ago I joined some contemporaries by abandoning the near sixty year habit of watching nightly TV news. I dropped it because I felt it did not give me real information that I had not acquired from other media sources, including some I pay for – The Economist, the NZ Herald, The Atlantic […]
TV layoffs not a threat to democracy
From a review of The Mystery of the Kibbutz: Egalitarian Principles in a Capitalist World Ran Abramitzky
12 Apr 2022 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economics of education, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, Marxist economics, personnel economics

From https://www.marketsandmorality.com/index.php/mandm/article/view/1453
“The Mystery of the Kibbutz explores the history of the kibbutz movement and its vision of economic equality, how it thrived despite inherent economic contradictions, and why it eventually declined. He focuses on three challenges in particular: first, the free rider problem, that there is no benefit for working harder when you get the same salary or personal economic benefits; second, adverse selection – that such a social system would tend to attract people who would not be as successful in a capitalist market; or the inverse, a brain drain, that the smartest people or those who could find success outside the kibbutz would tend to leave. Finally, the question of human capital investment: that there would be a tendency to underinvest in human capital, in other words that there would be a lack of incentive for young people to study or work hard because in the end as kibbutz members they can depend on equal income no matter what their contribution is.”
Pay transparency laws reduce the gender pay gap primarily by slowing wage growth for male employees
28 Feb 2022 Leave a comment

Walter Block on sex Discrimination
04 Jan 2022 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, discrimination, econometerics, economic history, economics of information, gender, health and safety, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, managerial economics, market efficiency, occupational choice, organisational economics, personnel economics, poverty and inequality Tags: gender wage gap
Why economists are unpopular
01 Jan 2022 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, economics of bureaucracy, economics of crime, entrepreneurship, environmental economics, history of economic thought, income redistribution, industrial organisation, international economics, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, liberalism, macroeconomics, managerial economics, minimum wage, organisational economics, personnel economics, poverty and inequality, property rights, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking, survivor principle, theory of the firm, unemployment, unions, welfare reform Tags: offsetting behaviour, The fatal conceit, unintended consequences

Compensating differences in wages and work intensity
01 Nov 2021 Leave a comment
in Adam Smith, Alfred Marshall, applied price theory, economic history, entrepreneurship, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, managerial economics, occupational choice, organisational economics, personnel economics, survivor principle Tags: compensating differences







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