Doing Good or Doing Bad? Humanitarian Action and U.S. Grand Strategy
15 Jan 2017 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, defence economics, economics of bureaucracy, Public Choice Tags: unintended consequences
Eric Posner: Twilight of Human Rights Law
13 Jan 2017 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of crime, law and economics, Public Choice Tags: Eric Posner
Thomas Sowell on education in America
28 Dec 2016 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of education, organisational economics, Public Choice Tags: Thomas Sowell
Crown company results run the gamut
21 Dec 2016 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, industrial organisation, politics - New Zealand
Great Escape passed by @WorldBank’s preoccupation with RCT (randomised controlled trials) as next big thing in development policy
04 Dec 2016 Leave a comment
in development economics, economics of bureaucracy, growth miracles, history of economic thought Tags: randomised controlled trials, The fatal conceit, The Great Escape, The pretense to knowledge
Who is the real stupid party? #Corbyn @jeremycorbyn #toriesforcorbyn
03 Nov 2016 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, constitutional political economy, development economics, economics of bureaucracy, growth disasters, Marxist economics, Public Choice Tags: British politics, economics of socialism, Leftover Left, Old Left, The Great Escape, Venezuela
South Korea and Industrial Policy
23 Oct 2016 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, development economics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, entrepreneurship, growth miracles, industrial organisation, Public Choice, rentseeking, survivor principle Tags: industry policy. South Korea, picking winners
#homeslessnessinquiry champions contracting-out @NZLabour @NZGreens @Maori_Party
10 Oct 2016 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, politics - New Zealand, poverty and inequality Tags: homelessness
Did they swallow a dead rat! After complaining bitterly about the privatisation of social housing and the contracting out of government services and in particular social services generally, the New Zealand Labour Party, the New Zealand Greens and the Maori Party all accepted that part of the solution to better emergency housing services to the homelessness is to fund community housing providers to build them houses. A greater role for the private sector, be it the NGO sector, in solving pressing social problems.
Source: Cross-party enquiry into homelessness.
It is pious to say that NGOs should build new social housing but existing social housing should not be sold to them to administer better than the bureaucrats.
The private sector has always been the last line of the defence for the social safety net for the homeless. Hotels and motels are used for emergency housing. There are plenty of them and it takes very little time to book into one as long as WINZ sends along the documentation to guarantee payment.
The report of Labour, the Greens and the Maori Party included reference to the Kate Amore data on homelessness which comfirms its credibility. That data shows that homelessness has fallen significantly in NZ since 2001 and 2006.
Homelessness is a by-product of bureaucratic inefficiency. So few people are actually sleeping rough or in shelters on any one night that is really an issue of why are those people are not in a shelter or permanent social housing.
The problem of homelessness is the efficiency of the bureaucracy in identifying these people, putting them in temporary quarters be at a hotel or motel if necessary, and then moving them into social housing.
No one is surprised at a homelessness shelter is run by a church or charity all with the assistance of government funding. No one seriously expects bureaucrats to be any good at running homeless shelters or the hotels or motels where the homeless are occasionally booked in.
.@PPTANews @TraceyMartinMP made best ever argument 4 #charterschools @maori_party
28 Sep 2016 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, economics of bureaucracy, economics of education, politics - New Zealand
Talk about giving the giving the game away. The only way a state school can do as well as a chartered school in delivering to students is giving it more money than a chartered school can do to deliver the same results.
That is the best ever argument for a charter school, they provide better value for the education dollar. Is my logic faulty?
How expensive are charter schools?
09 Sep 2016 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of education, industrial organisation, Public Choice, rentseeking, survivor principle Tags: charter schools, expressive voting, New Zealand Greens, New Zealand Labour Party, rational rationality, teachers unions
The Rhodesia Solution – Yes Minister
13 Aug 2016 Leave a comment
in economics, economics of bureaucracy, Public Choice Tags: Yes Minister
Why politicians and bureaucrats can never pick winners?
12 Aug 2016 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, politics - New Zealand
If politicians and bureaucrats were any good at picking winners, they will be on a fabulously well paid package at a hedge fund.
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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