Poverty rates among immigrants and natives across the OECD
16 Jul 2015 Leave a comment
in income redistribution, labour economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, welfare reform Tags: Australia, child poverty, economics of immigration, family poverty
And the rich got richer, who cares
16 Jul 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, Austrian economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of education, economics of regulation, economics of religion, energy economics, entrepreneurship, environmental economics, financial economics, growth disasters, growth miracles, income redistribution, industrial organisation, international economics, labour economics, labour supply, liberalism, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, rentseeking, survivor principle, transport economics, urban economics Tags: Deirdre McCloskey, entrepreneurial alertness, The Great Enrichment, The Great Escape, The Great Fact, top 1%
"The rich got richer, true. But…" —@DeirdreMcClosk buff.ly/1Imdv4o http://t.co/M3ERx3JTIn—
HumanProgress.org (@humanprogress) June 28, 2015
Should Majorities Decide Everything?
15 Jul 2015 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economics of bureaucracy, income redistribution, liberalism, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: constitutional law, expressive voting, median voter theorem, Mike Munger, rational ignorance, rational irrationality, tyranny of the majority
Poverty lines can lead to results stranger than fiction
15 Jul 2015 Leave a comment
in development economics, growth disasters, growth miracles, income redistribution, labour economics, poverty and inequality Tags: China, measurement errors, poverty lines
@MaxCRoser, rather bizarre that this series puts the poverty rate in the UK as more than double that of China! http://t.co/X9KHzlu54I—
Will L (@wjl2133) June 15, 2015
Good old left-wing hate speech at its best
12 Jul 2015 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of media and culture, entrepreneurship, income redistribution, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: British elections, expressive voting, free speech, hate speech, London newspapers, media bias, rational ignorance, rational irrationality
I agree with @D_Blanchflower – I wish newspapers didn't spin elections and played it straight, like they used to… http://t.co/5btL7PAFWe—
Fraser Nelson (@FraserNelson) May 07, 2015
New Zealand teachers’ unions are above average in their effectiveness
12 Jul 2015 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of education, income redistribution, labour economics, Public Choice, rentseeking, unions Tags: public sector unions, teachers union, union power, union wage premium
Puerto Rico’s economy can’t handle the federal minimum wage
11 Jul 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, Federalism, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, minimum wage, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: federalism, living wage, Puerto Rico, sovereign default
Puerto Rico's economy can't handle the federal minimum wage. bit.ly/1IEJIEi http://t.co/D3mzOmlnJa—
Manhattan Institute (@ManhattanInst) July 07, 2015
A living wage helps well-off households more!
10 Jul 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, econometerics, income redistribution, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: activists, British economy, British politics, do gooders, expressive voting, living wage, rational ignorance, rational irrationality, The fatal conceit, The pretence to knowledge, unintended consequences
Do Living Wage advocates realise it helps richer households more than poorer ones? My take: telegraph.co.uk/finance/budget… … http://t.co/YPTB6v7tSB—
Fraser Nelson (@FraserNelson) July 10, 2015
The left-wing solution to Greek bankruptcy
10 Jul 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, currency unions, fiscal policy, global financial crisis (GFC), income redistribution, liberalism, macroeconomics, Marxist economics, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking Tags: Eurosclerosis, expressive voting, Greece, rational ignorance, rational irrationality, sovereign default
Can NZ double migrant investors and entrepreneurs from $3.5 billion to $7 billion at no cost to taxpayers!?
07 Jul 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, economics of bureaucracy, entrepreneurship, income redistribution, industrial organisation, managerial economics, organisational economics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking, survivor principle Tags: corporate welfare, entrepreneurial alertness, industry policy, industry targeting, The fatal conceit, The pretence to knowledge
I didn’t notice any discussion in the Cabinet paper of a government doing this before and whether their investment promotion efforts succeeded or not. This latest policy proposal cannot even count as evidence-based policy dreaming, much less a serious contribution to public policy.

Hoping to double incoming foreign investor and entrepreneur migration from $3.5 billion to $7 billion inside three years without spending any extra public money is breathless public policy making. I am sure lots of governments previously tried to get something for nothing.
It will be helpful if ministers pointed to where overseas governments have been successful in doubling foreign investment by simply reprioritising existing investment promotion efforts.
There are at least 2,500 national, provincial and city investment promotion agencies out. Some of them must have been subject to some sort of evaluation as to their success.

This overseas literature review would be in addition to the recent findings of the Ministry of Economic Development about the poor performance and perhaps futility of the foreign direct investment promotion by New Zealand Trade and Enterprise.
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Imagine how much bigger a boost in foreign investor and entrepreneur migration lays before us if actual real new money was put on the table.
via beehive.govt.nz – Strategy targets international investors and Evaluation of NZTE investment support activities [929 KB PDF]
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Fabian Society and Church of England caught out as hypocrites on London Living Wage of £18,000
06 Jul 2015 Leave a comment
in income redistribution, industrial organisation, labour economics, minimum wage, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, rentseeking, survivor principle Tags: British economy, British politics, Church of England, expressive voting, Fabian Society, hard budget constraints, Left-wing hypocrisy, living wage, market selection
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