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George Stigler on the extensive influence of economists on public policy
20 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
in George Stigler, history of economic thought, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: evidence-based policy, expressive politics, expressive voting, intellectuals, politics of reform, rational ignorance, rational irrationality
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Why masterly inactivity will be the American response to global warming
20 Mar 2015 1 Comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, Public Choice Tags: climate alarmism, global warming, green rent seeking, opinion polls, voting
How better educated whites are driving political polarization – The Washington Post
20 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of love and marriage, gender, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: abortion, political polarisation
On or about 1990, as a latter-day Virginia Woolf might say, American politics changed. I wouldn’t take the blip of the dotted line at 1990 very seriously–sampling variability and all that–but the general pattern in the graph above is real, and appear in all sorts of other data. In 1988 and before: zero correlations of partisanship with attitudes; since 1992, the correlations have been big and getting larger…
Not only is the abortion/party relationship primarily driven by whites, it is substantially stronger among white elites–that is, people with high income, education, or levels of political information.
via How better educated whites are driving political polarization – The Washington Post.
The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender population vote for parties that welcome them
18 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
in liberalism, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: expressive voting, voter demographics
The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender population is one of the most Democratic demographic groups in the country. According to the 2012 national exit polls conducted by the National Election Pool, gay, lesbian, and bisexual adults voted for Barack Obama over Mitt Romney by more than three-to-one (76% vs. 22%).
This Democratic advantage can be seen in the partisan identification of LGBT adults, a majority of whom are Democrats. It also expresses itself in policy preferences across a range of issues, including size of government, attitudes about gun policy and immigration…
Half of LGBT adults (50%) self-identify as liberal, 37% are moderate, and just 12% say they are conservative.
That’s hardly surprising that people vote for the parties that welcome them given the deep hostility of the Republican Party on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues. Until the middle of the 20th century, few black Americans voted for the Democratic party because it was the party of racism. People rarely vote for parties that really dislike them.
The transferability of these American results on partisanship to New Zealand is rather limited because there is no cultural war as there is in the USA currently over same-sex marriages. A same-sex marriage bill passed the New Zealand Parliament in 2013 fairly easily. The Christian based socially conservative parties in New Zealand are pretty tame in their rhetoric and still struggling to get into Parliament.
As such, the centre right parties in New Zealand aren’t seen as particularly hostile to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender population. On the same-sex marriage bill, for example, the National Party split evenly on voting for and against, reflecting its moderation in just about every issue.
People of all sexualities can vote for New Zealand parties on grounds other than the fact of how welcoming they are to who they are. That makes the American results on partisanship and sexuality less relevant to New Zealand
On marijuana, Obama is content to evolve rather than to lead the way – The Washington Post
18 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, economics of media and culture, health economics, liberalism, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: marijuana decriminalisation, medical marijuana decriminalisation
For a lame duck president doing a lot to cultivate his legacy, Obama is really dragging his feet here if he is in any way a social liberal
via On marijuana, Obama is content to evolve rather than to lead the way – The Washington Post.
NZ is in the middle of the pack in reducing poverty rates through redistribution
16 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
in income redistribution, labour economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, welfare reform Tags: child poverty, welfare state
The figure shows pre-transfer and post-transfer poverty rates among OECD countries (mostly the advanced economies). The former (pre-transfer) are the market-driven poverty rates, before the tax and transfer systems kick in.
Source: OECD, *Poverty thresholds: 50% of median income.
Harvard students take the 1964 Louisiana Literacy Test that black voters had to pass to qualify to vote
16 Mar 2015 1 Comment
How the Voting Rights Act immediately changed the electorate in the South – Vox
15 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
in liberalism, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: southern States, Voting Rights Act
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The Voting Right Act had a huge impact on many southern states. For example, black voter registration rates in Mississippi increased from a mere 6.7 percent in 1965 to 59.8 percent in 1967, according to the US Commission for Civil Rights.
For a state that’s historically around 40 percent black, this represented a massive shift in politics — a change that much of the predominantly white leadership at the time feared but would have to accept due to the Voting Rights Act.
via How the Voting Rights Act immediately changed the electorate in the South, in 2 charts – Vox.
The policy world and academia offer widely different opportunities for early career researchers
15 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, economics of bureaucracy, economics of education, occupational choice, organisational economics, politics, Public Choice
Academia rewards findings that are different and unexpected. In policy it is more important to be right than novel—after all, millions of lives may be impacted by a policy decision. In academia, people argue a lot about the direction of an effect but very little about the magnitude: in policy it’s the reverse…
Bias in the bias against inheriting riches
14 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
in income redistribution, sports economics Tags: expressive politics, expressive voting, top 1%
China’s richest lawmakers make America’s look straight up poor
14 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
in income redistribution, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: China
Deirdre McCloskey on corruption and economic development
13 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, development economics, economic history, economics of crime, growth disasters, growth miracles, law and economics, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: corruption, Deirdre McCloskey, The Industrial Revolution
Richard Lindzen on back when periods of warming were climate optima
12 Mar 2015 1 Comment
in economic history, economics of bureaucracy, environmental economics, global warming, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: Anti-Science left, climate alarmism, green rent seeking, Richard Lindzen
Israel’s Arab political parties have united for the first time
12 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
in constitutional political economy, Public Choice Tags: Israel, Knesset, Middle-East politics
the coalition is a result of a move last year to increase the minimum number of votes a party needs to secure a place in the 120-seat Knesset, Israel’s parliament.
Some saw that change as an attempt to oust small Arab parties, but instead it prompted the fragmented and fairly powerless Arab leadership to unite under the banner of the Joint List.
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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