Source: Investigation: Police shootings – Washington Post.
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Police killings of Blacks in 2015 by threat level
05 Jan 2016 1 Comment
in economics of crime, politics - USA Tags: law and order, police shootings
@EricCrampton @conradhackett the size of the New Zealand government since 1900
04 Jan 2016 Leave a comment
in economic history, politics - New Zealand, public economics
Oddly enough, the lost decades of New Zealand growth coincide with the rapid growth in the size of government between 1974 and 1992. The return of growth to New Zealand from 1992 after 17 years of stagnation and next to no real GDP growth coincided with the decline in the size of government.
Source: David Rea 2009.
Source: David Rea 2009.
@EricCrampton @conradhackett New Zealand government used to be much bigger and still is
04 Jan 2016 Leave a comment
in economic history, politics - New Zealand
Source: Data extracted on 04 Jan 2016 06:49 UTC (GMT) and 07:01 UTC (GMT) from OECD.Stat
The OECD calculations using general government expenditure lead to an estimate of the size of government in New Zealand that is at least 10 percentage points larger at times than when using core crown expenses or total taxes as a percentage of GDP. I once asked the Treasury why was this was so as they had plotted both core crown expenses and general government expenditures as a percentage of GDP in a chart. They did not know why.
2015 police killings by threat level
04 Jan 2016 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, politics - USA
Despite the media hype this year, surprisingly few people are shot by police who are unarmed and not resisting. The Washington Post estimated that less than 5% of police killings are in any way suspicious.
Source: Investigation: Police shootings – Washington Post.
When I previously posted data such as this on the Data is Beautiful sub-Reddit, some of the comments accused me of racism. Apparently, to post data from a highly reputable source on police shootings by threat level is a racist act.
Workplace fatalities by industry in New Zealand since 2010
04 Jan 2016 Leave a comment
in health and safety, labour economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: workplace fatalities
Working in forestry and agriculture is dangerous in New Zealand. There are only about four and half thousand agricultural workers but five to 10 die every year. Agriculture is also relatively dangerous. The Pike River mining disaster killed 29 in 2010. Construction, a large industry, also has a number of fatalities.
Source: Workplace fatalities by industry | Worksafe.
Source: Workplace fatalities by industry | Worksafe.
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Whose voting base has succumbed to unthinking populists?
31 Dec 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economics of education, economics of information, economics of media and culture, income redistribution, international economics, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: 2016 presidential election
Top 1% pays almost as much tax as the bottom 95%
27 Dec 2015 1 Comment
in politics - USA, public economics Tags: top 1%
Voter turnout rates among the less educated have collapsed since the 1970s
23 Dec 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of education, economics of media and culture, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: expressive voting, rational ignorance, voter demographics, voter turnout
How much lower is youth voter turnout across the OECD?
23 Dec 2015 Leave a comment
in politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: rational ignorance, voter turnout
Teenage smoking rates by family affluence in the USA, Germany, France, Canada and UK
22 Dec 2015 Leave a comment
in health economics, politics - USA Tags: economics of smoking
Not only are there large differences in teen smoking rates by family affluence in North America, there are large differences in teen smoking rates between across the Atlantic and the English Channel.
Source: OECD Family Database – OECD.
Education and the risk of criminality
22 Dec 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, economics of education, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, occupational choice, politics - USA Tags: crime and punishment
@TransportBlog @JulieAnneGenter community outrage at new bike lane death trap in Island Bay
22 Dec 2015 Leave a comment
in health and safety, politics - New Zealand, transport economics, urban economics
Source: Wellington’s Island Bay cycleway has left residents confused and angry | Stuff.co.nz.
We drove past this bicycle death trap in island Bay in Wellington the other weekend. The first thing I noticed is a lot of bicycle will be sideswiped as passengers in cars open their left door not expecting anybody to be there. The bike lane also narrows the road from buses. Residents now have a lot of trouble safely getting out of their houses without both are running over bicyclists and seeing oncoming cars. Further proof that bikes are a killer green technology.
Source: Wellington’s Island Bay cycleway has left residents confused and angry | Stuff.co.nz.
Part of the nonsense behind this death trap is that more people ride their bike if they can do so safely such as on this death trap according to the local mayor:
Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown acknowledged the recent social media backlash – which she dubbed “bike-lash” – but was confident it would simmer down once the cycleway was complete.
She pointed to the council’s research, which showed 76 per cent of Wellingtonians would cycle more if cycling was safer.
“And I think a scientific survey is a clearer indication [of Wellingtonians’ views on the cycleway] than the number of social media likes or dislikes.”
Obviously our local mayor has not heard of the social acceptability bias that arises when answering questions about whether or whether not they are use fashionable forms of transport.
The number of people in Wellington taking a bicycle to work in Wellington is trivial. Three times as many walk to work as take a bike to work in Wellington.
Source: New Zealand Transport Agency.
The Twitter Left mantra as championed by the Greens and Transport Blog is that it would all be so much different we invested a little bit more in public transport is a myth.
The experience in Europe and North America is that if you make buses free, the cheapies that currently bike take the bus or train. In addition, the street people find it comfortable warm place to hang out when during the day which drives the regular customers away.
A 2002 report released by the National Center for Transportation Research indicated that the lack of fares attracted hordes of young people, who brought with them a culture of vandalism, graffiti, and bad behavior—which all necessitated costly maintenance. The lure of “free,” the report implied, attracted the “wrong” crowd—the “right” crowd, of course, being wealthier people with cars, who aren’t very sensitive to price changes.
The US-Mexican Border
22 Dec 2015 Leave a comment
in development economics, politics - USA Tags: economics of borders, Mexico
@GarethMorgannz the universal basic income is inferior to the minimum family tax credit
20 Dec 2015 4 Comments
in labour economics, labour supply, politics - New Zealand, poverty and inequality, public economics, welfare reform Tags: Aaron Director, Director's Law, Gareth Morgan, negative income tax, social insurance, universal basic income, welfare state
Gareth Morgan’s universal basic income appears to make everybody better off except those for whom the modern welfare state was established to protect. Examples of these from his online calculator are single mothers and retirees.
Source: The Big Kahuna – Tax and Welfare.
To stay even just with single mothers blows a good $10 billion hole in the budget deficit according to the online calculator provided by Gareth Morgan. Retirees are still worse off.
Source: The Big Kahuna – Tax and Welfare.
Central to the package is a comprehensive capital gains tax despite evidence growing with each day that the optimal tax rates on income from capital and on capital gains are zero.
A universal basic income for New Zealand is a long trip to where we are now. There is already a guaranteed minimum family income in New Zealand.
The minimum family tax credit makes sure that a family’s annual income (net income after tax has been deducted) doesn’t fall below $23,036 a year ($443 per week). To qualify, you must work for a salary or wage for at least 30 hours each week as a couple, or 20 hours each week as a single parent, and receive a family tax credit.
The Treasury modelled a Guaranteed Minimum income at the request of the Welfare Working Group in 2010. A guaranteed minimum income of $300 per week – the mean benefit income among those on benefits – would cost $44.5 billion or $52.6 billion if we extended it to super annuitants as a replacement for NZ Superannuation or old age pension. The former could be covered by a flat personal income tax rate of 45.4%; the latter, 48.6%. Full fiscal neutrality would require tax rates of 50.6% and 54.4%.
The universal basic income seems to be a big day out for Director’s Law of Public Expenditure. Director’s Law is public expenditure is used primary for the benefit of the middle class, and is financed with taxes which are borne in considerable part by the poor and the rich.
The universal basic income and a comprehensive capital gains tax seems to cause a lot of economic upheaval but still struggles to make the worse off groups in society even break-even on this throwing of all the cards in the air. Brian Easton put it well the other day when he said:
Many advocates put the UMI forward without doing the sums. Those who do, find that the required tax rates are horrendous or the minimum income is so low that it is not a viable means of eliminating poverty. Among the latter are New Zealanders Douglas, Gareth Morgan and Keith Rankin.
Roland Fryer on Education, Inequality, & Incentives
19 Dec 2015 1 Comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, economics of education, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, poverty and inequality Tags: charter schools, racial discrimination, Roland Fryer
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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