An American President on what @nzlabour @NZGreens have become (on housing affordability and trade and investment)
15 Oct 2015 Leave a comment
in politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: American President, expressive voting, New Zealand Greens, New Zealand Labour, rational ignorance, rational irrationality
% of public cash benefits paid to the bottom income quintile, USA, UK, Australia and New Zealand – corrected
15 Oct 2015 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, poverty and inequality
Australia does far better than any other country in targeting its welfare state to the bottom of the income distribution. Having an old age pension that is asset tested and income tested has a lot to do with that. New Zealand has an old age pension that is not income tested or asset tested. The USA has a contributory social insurance system that also ensures a considerable amount of its public social benefits are paid to the well off because they paid in Social Security taxes.
Source: OECD Income Distribution database, via http://oe.cd/idd
@janlogie The dramatic closing of the gender pay gap at the 10th percentile in the US, UK, Australia and NZ since 1970 but not at the 90th percentile!
15 Oct 2015 4 Comments
in discrimination, economic history, gender, human capital, labour economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: asymmetric marriage premium, compensating differentials, gender wage gap, marriage and divorce
It seems that the top 10% of men are so busy oppressing the top 10% of women that they forgot to keep up the violence inherent in the capitalist system against the bottom 10% of women. The gender pay gap at the bottom of the economic strata closed quite dramatically and consistently since 1970 or as far back as data was available in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and USA. Much of the closing of the gender pay gap for the low-paid was under the scourge of Reagan, Thatcher, Hawke and Keating and Rogernomics.
Source and Notes: OECD Employment Database. The gender gap plotted below is unadjusted. It is calculated as the difference between the 10th percentile earnings of men and the 10th percentile earnings of women relative to the 10th percentile earnings of men. Estimates of earnings used in the calculations refer to gross earnings of full-time wage and salary workers. However, this definition may slightly vary from one country to another.
By comparison to this dramatic liberation of women from the gender pay gap at the bottom, the gender pay gap for full-time employees has not really tapered down that much at the top of the income distribution and has been pretty flat for coming on 20 years. It seems the class war is over and has been won by women at the bottom but not at the top?
Younger, more educated women delay having families and can earn as much as their partners. bit.ly/1jw98Ky http://t.co/BaDIlBIBA2—
Ninja Economics (@NinjaEconomics) October 14, 2015
Rather than up the workers, the battle cry of the Posh Trots is up the managers, liberate them from insidious pay inequities imposed upon them by a vast sexist conspiracy of male managers.
Source and Notes: OECD Employment Database. The gender gap plotted below is unadjusted. It is calculated as the difference between the 10th percentile earnings of men and the 10th percentile earnings of women relative to the 10th percentile earnings of men. Estimates of earnings used in the calculations refer to gross earnings of full-time wage and salary workers. However, this definition may slightly vary from one country to another.
This failure to close the gender pay gap at the top requires more investigation. The available of reliable contraceptives in the late 1960s led to an explosion of investment by women in long duration professional education and in careers where absences because of motherhood in their 20s and 30s was penalised in terms of human capital depreciation and promotional opportunities.
The reason for the endurance of the gender pay gap at the top of the income distribution is compensating differentials. Women at the top were able to have it all.
Professional women could invest in a career and a family and mix-and-match according to their own preferences for career and family and timing of births rather than the preferences of others who looked upon them as some sort of pathfinder for their gender. It is at the top of the income distribution where short absences from the workplace can has very large consequences for wages and promotion.
The different Republican and Democratic presidential primary debates
15 Oct 2015 Leave a comment
in politics - USA Tags: 2016 presidential election
Different worlds http://t.co/4pfbNJMseb—
Roberto Ferdman (@robferdman) October 14, 2015
The economics of the Curly effect
14 Oct 2015 Leave a comment
in economic history, politics - USA, Public Choice
Marijuana arrests by Presidential administration
14 Oct 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, economics of regulation, health economics, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: crime and punishment, marijuana decriminalisation, war on drugs
Marijuana arrests by Presidential administration http://t.co/pJPHVfNaas—
Charts and Maps (@ChartsandMaps) April 04, 2015
How @MaxRashbrooke showed housing costs is the main driver of poverty when trying to argue rising inequality was not driven by housing costs
13 Oct 2015 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, economics of regulation, politics - New Zealand, poverty and inequality, Rawls and Nozick, rentseeking, urban economics
Rashbrooke then goes on to discuss how housing costs were not a main driver of the growing gap between the top 10% and the bottom 10% of the income distribution in New Zealand. My point is he is more concerned with the politics of envy than with building political support for action against poverty.
What children say about poverty #childpovertynz #itsnotchoice http://t.co/vYfxTn7aG7—
Child Poverty NZ (@povertymonitor) September 07, 2015
Rashbrooke showed that the main driver of poverty in New Zealand is rising housing costs. That is easy to redress but for the opposition of the left-wing parties to reforms to the Resource Management Act that will increase the supply of land and thereby drive down housing costs and rents.
Children's views on poverty #childpovertynz occ.org.nz/assets/Uploads… http://t.co/wZHJ19QcpN—
Child Poverty NZ (@povertymonitor) September 08, 2015
Housing costs gobbled up much of the rising incomes of the poor for many years now in New Zealand as Rashbrooke showed today. The New Zealand Labor Party and New Zealand Greens are doing nothing about it. The regulatory constraints on the supply of land could be gone by lunchtime if the self-proclaimed champions of the poor and social justice supported the reform of the RMA.
The proposals of the New Zealand Labour Party and Greens for the government to build more houses is pointless unless there is more land is supplied. If there is no increase in land supply, all the building of more houses by government does is build the same houses of private developers would have built on the same fixed supply of land. There must be an increase in the supply of land to drive housing costs down for the poor.
The continued decline of violent crime in America
13 Oct 2015 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of crime, law and economics, occupational choice, politics - USA Tags: crime and punishment, crime statistics, criminal deterrence, law and order
Violent crime fell again in 2014. So much for the "Ferguson effect."
washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/… http://t.co/h2a6b746qS—
Christopher Ingraham (@_cingraham) September 29, 2015
Increase in the Cost of Housing in the US 1901-2002
12 Oct 2015 Leave a comment
in economic history, politics - USA, urban economics Tags: housing affordability, housing prices, land prices, land supply, land use planning, zoning
Increase in the Cost of Housing in the US 1901-2002 bit.ly/195NbKb http://t.co/kt7pmOFPVi—
Catherine Mulbrandon (@VisualEcon) August 25, 2014
A 20 year period of polling Hillary Clinton
12 Oct 2015 Leave a comment
in politics - USA Tags: 2016 presidential election, voter demographics
A 20 year period of polling Hillary Clinton washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-lin… http://t.co/1LGSKCXNiG—
Political Line (@PoliticalLine) September 02, 2015
Candidate Lessig’s Bad Example
11 Oct 2015 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economic history, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: campaign finance reform, campaign finance regulation
@thecounted US police killings of 217 blacks by cause, 1 Jan – 10 Oct 2015 @radleybalko
10 Oct 2015 1 Comment
in economics of crime, politics - USA
@thecounted beats up on Georgia state police killings @radleybalko @Mark_J_Perry
10 Oct 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, politics - USA
Georgia police shot one unarmed suspect this year. He was a crazy naked guy charging at police. Would you let a crazy naked guy get your gun?
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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