Police killings of the mentally ill by threat level in 2015
06 Jan 2016 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: crime and punishment, law and order, police shootings
Jason Furman on residential housing supply, NIMBYism, and economic growth
05 Jan 2016 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, environmental economics, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking, urban economics Tags: housing affordability, land use planning, RMA, zoning
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.
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