Casey Mulligan on Vaccines, the Pandemic, and the FDA 5/22/23
31 Oct 2023 2 Comments
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, health economics, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: drug lags, economics of pandemics
Just make it easy to delist buildings
31 Oct 2023 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, law and economics, property rights, Public Choice, urban economics
My column in the weekend papers:There is one other alternative. It is an alternative Wellington officials downplayed. But it is one that the council should take or that central government could progress instead.Why not make it easy to remove buildings from the district plan?A council needing legislation to address a local issue can propose a…
Just make it easy to delist buildings
Book Review: Race and Culture by Thomas Sowell
29 Oct 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, development economics, discrimination, economic history, gender, growth disasters, growth miracles, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, Marxist economics, minimum wage, occupational choice, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice, Thomas Sowell
Thomas Sowell is a skilled writer with a powerful ability to combine historical, social science and free-market perspectives. He cuts through the noise and doesn’t mince his words on the sensitive topics of race and culture. In Race and Culture Sowell argues against two common social science doctrines: 1) that all races are equal and […]
Book Review: Race and Culture by Thomas Sowell
Accountability
27 Oct 2023 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, macroeconomics, monetary economics, Public Choice
On Saturday dozens of candidates for the governing Labour Party stood for election to Parliament. The aim was to form (at least a big part of) the next government. They didn’t succeed. People will debate for decades precisely what motivated the public as a whole to vote as we did, but having governed for the […]
Accountability
Upzoning with Strings Attached
21 Oct 2023 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, income redistribution, Public Choice, rentseeking, urban economics Tags: offsetting behavior, unintended consequences, zoning
The subtitle of this paper is: “Evidence from Seattle’s Affordable Housing Mandate.” Here is the abstract: This paper analyzes the effects of a major municipal residential land use reform on new home construction and developer behavior. We examine Seattle’s Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) program, which relaxed zoning regulations while also encouraging affordable housing construction in […]
Upzoning with Strings Attached
David D. Friedman – The Externality problem: Population, Climate, Pandemic
19 Oct 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, David Friedman, development economics, economic history, economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, history of economic thought, law and economics, liberalism, libertarianism, population economics, property rights, Public Choice
What should be done about the Reserve Bank?
19 Oct 2023 Leave a comment
in business cycles, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, inflation targeting, macroeconomics, monetary economics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice Tags: monetary policy
Monday’s post was on the important place effective accountability must have when government agencies are given great discretionary power which – as is in the nature of any human institutions – they will at times exercise poorly. My particular focus is on the Reserve Bank, both because it is what I know best, because it […]
What should be done about the Reserve Bank?
Ireland’s Corporate Tax and the Laffer Curve
19 Oct 2023 Leave a comment
in economic growth, economic history, fiscal policy, macroeconomics, Public Choice, public economics Tags: taxation and investment
About 15 years ago, I narrated a three-part series on the Laffer Curve. Here’s Part II, which looks at real-world evidence. About halfway through the video (3:15-3:55), I discuss what happened when Ireland dramatically lowered its corporate tax rate. The net result was an increase in tax revenue. But not just by a small amount. […]
Ireland’s Corporate Tax and the Laffer Curve
More “Social Justice Fallacies,” with Thomas Sowell | Uncommon Knowledge
29 Sep 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, economic history, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, liberalism, Marxist economics, occupational choice, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, Thomas Sowell, unemployment Tags: racial discrimination, sex discrimination
ECB Monetary Policy Conference – 20 October 2020: John Cochrane
25 Sep 2023 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, macroeconomics, monetary economics, Public Choice
Who booed when the wall fell
15 Aug 2023 Leave a comment
in liberalism, libertarianism, Marxist economics, Public Choice Tags: Berlin wall, economics of socialism, fall of communism
Why wasn’t there a Scramble for Australia?
28 Jul 2023 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, international economic law, International law, Public Choice Tags: age of empires, Australia, economics of colonialism
The risk the Greens’ wealth tax poses to our economy
21 Jul 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, economic history, entrepreneurship, financial economics, income redistribution, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, public economics Tags: taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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