Per capita receipt of asylum seekers
19 Jun 2015 Leave a comment
in Economics of international refugee law, international economic law, International law, law and economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: asylum seekers, economics of immigration
Sweden – the OECD's highest per capita recipient of asylum seekers bit.ly/1vfFEUh http://t.co/y6DmdJjAsE—
Guardian Data (@GuardianData) December 02, 2014
Hypothetical election results if Garth McVicar were leader of the Conservative Party
19 Jun 2015 Leave a comment
in politics - New Zealand, Public Choice
Colin Craig has resigned as leader of the Conservative Party. If the head of the Sensible Sentencing Trust Garth McVicar succeeded him and he was to win an electorate seat, the table below shows how the NZ Parliament would have changed at the last general election in 2014.
| Party name |
Party Votes won |
Party seat entitlement |
No. of electorate seats won |
No. of list MPs |
Total MPs |
|
% of MPs |
|||
|
ACT New Zealand |
0.69% |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0.83% |
||||
|
Conservative |
3.97% |
5 |
1 |
4 |
5 |
4.13% |
||||
|
Green Party |
10.70% |
13 |
0 |
13 |
13 |
10.74% |
||||
|
Labour Party |
25.13% |
31 |
26 |
5 |
31 |
25.62% |
||||
|
Māori Party |
1.42% |
2 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
1.65% |
||||
|
National Party |
47.07% |
57 |
41 |
16 |
57 |
47.11% |
||||
|
New Zealand First Party |
8.66% |
11 |
0 |
11 |
11 |
9.09% |
||||
|
United Future |
0.22% |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
* |
0.83% |
|||
|
Totals |
97.86% |
120 |
71 |
50 |
121 |
|
100.00% |
|||
If Garth McVicar was to win an electorate seat, and with no other changes in the party vote in the 2014 election, the National Party would have lost three list MPs, the Labour Party one list MP, which was the list seat of its current leader, and the Greens would lose one list MP – that MP supports homoeopathic medicine as a cure for Ebola.
Little wonder that the National Party doesn’t seem to want the Conservative Party in Parliament as the majority of its seats come off their total and every bill in Parliament will depend upon the Conservative Party support unless they can get the Maori party on board. The Maori party votes against the National Party the majority of time in Parliament.
Ben Elton on the fraying of the Left
19 Jun 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of media and culture, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: Ben Elton, expressive voting, Green Left, Leftover Left, rational ignorance, rational irrationality, The fatal conceit, The pretence to knowledge
Gun-free zones an easy target for killers | John Lott
19 Jun 2015 1 Comment
in applied price theory, economics of crime, economics of regulation, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: game theory, gun control, John Lott, mass public shootings, offsetting behaviour, read killers, The fatal conceit, The pretence to knowledge, unintended consequences
US income taxes are highly progressive
19 Jun 2015 Leave a comment
in politics - USA, public economics Tags: earned income tax credit, family tax credits, progressive income taxes, tax incidence, top 1%, welfare state
What territory Mexican drug cartels control
18 Jun 2015 Leave a comment
in development economics, economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: drug cartels, drug legalisation, Mexico, Narco States, war on drugs
Australian dialects mapped
18 Jun 2015 Leave a comment
in politics - Australia Tags: Australia, economics of languages
Trends in the real minimum wage, PPP, Australia, New Zealand, USA and UK since 2000
18 Jun 2015 Leave a comment
in economic history, labour economics, minimum wage, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: Australia, British economy
Figure 1: real minimum wage, 2013 constant prices, purchasing power parity, US$, Australia, New Zealand, USA and UK
Source: OECD StatExtract.
The MMP what-ifs if Colin Craig been deposed as Conservative Party leader
18 Jun 2015 Leave a comment
in politics - New Zealand, Public Choice
If Colin Craig is deposed tomorrow as the leader of the Conservative Party of New Zealand, his party will fall apart and run as a rump at the next election. The tables below discuss what might happen to the party vote that drifts back to the major parties with the collapse of the Conservative Party.
Table 1: 2014 general election status quo
| Party name | Party Votes won | Party seat entitlement | No. of electorate seats won | No. of list MPs | Total MPs | % of MPs | |
| ACT New Zealand | 0.69% | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0.83% | |
| Green Party | 10.70% | 14 | 0 | 14 | 14 | 11.57% | |
| Labour Party | 25.13% | 32 | 27 | 5 | 32 | 26.45% | |
| Māori Party | 1.32% | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1.65% | |
| National Party | 47.04% | 60 | 41 | 19 | 60 | 49.59% | |
| New Zealand First Party | 8.66% | 11 | 0 | 11 | 11 | 9.09% | |
| United Future | 0.22% | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | * | 0.83% |
| Totals | 93.76% | 120 | 71 | 50 | 121 | 100.00% |
As the table 2 below shows, if about 2% of the party vote of the Conservative party drifts back to National, and 2/10th of a percentage point of that party vote of the Conservative Party going to United Future, the National Party not only wins a majority in Parliament, the overhang in Parliament disappears as well. The United Future Party seat comes off the representation of the Labour Party if its party vote exceeds 0.4%. There are no other changes of note.
Table 2: 2014 general election with Conservative party rump
| Party name | Party Votes won | Party seat entitlement | No. of electorate seats won | No. of list MPs | Total MPs | % of MPs | |
| ACT New Zealand | 0.89% | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0.83% | |
| Green Party | 10.70% | 13 | 0 | 13 | 13 | 10.83% | |
| Labour Party | 25.43% | 31 | 27 | 4 | 31 | 25.83% | |
| Māori Party | 1.32% | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1.67% | |
| National Party | 49.07% | 61 | 41 | 20 | 61 | 50.83% | |
| New Zealand First Party | 9.16% | 11 | 0 | 11 | 11 | 9.17% | |
| United Future | 0.42% | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0.83% | |
| Totals | 96.99% | 120 | 71 | 49 | 120 | 100.00% |
The National Party almost won a majority in the last election so only a small amount of the Conservative Party’s party vote drifting back to it more so than the other parties can boost it to 61 votes and an absolute majority in its own right. Tomorrow is a big day for the future of New Zealand politics and the chances of the Left winning government any time soon.
Many forget how expensive the moon program was in the 60s and that it wasn’t popular!
18 Jun 2015 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, economic history, politics - USA Tags: expressive voting, moon, NASA, public R&D, R&D, space program
NASA's budget as a percentage of Federal spending. Wish this chart went up. =( buff.ly/1FygxQ7 http://t.co/dEczs1QNoi—
Tyler Vigen (@TylerVigen) May 26, 2015
…many people believe that Project Apollo was popular, probably because it garnered significant media attention, but the polls do not support a contention that Americans embraced the lunar landing mission.
Consistently throughout the 1960s a majority of Americans did not believe Apollo was worth the cost, with the one exception to this a poll taken at the time of the Apollo 11 lunar landing in July 1969.
And consistently throughout the decade 45-60 percent of Americans believed that the government was spending too much on space, indicative of a lack of commitment to the spaceflight agenda. These data do not support a contention that most people approved of Apollo and thought it important to explore space.
HT: Moondoggle: The Forgotten Opposition to the Apollo Program – The Atlantic.
Education and single motherhood
18 Jun 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of education, gender, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, welfare reform Tags: single mothers
There's a clear increase in single-parent households for parents who haven’t gone to college: on.wsj.com/1B1Xeuq http://t.co/eW2fH8bX5O—
Real Time Economics (@WSJecon) May 17, 2015
Ideological rankings of presidential candidates based on Twitter followers
18 Jun 2015 Leave a comment
in politics - USA Tags: 2016 presidential election, Twitter
Ideological rankings of presidential candidates based on Twitter followers from @p_barbera wapo.st/1el8BJB http://t.co/ZbW8BOSWmm—
The Monkey Cage (@monkeycageblog) June 16, 2015
The opportunity cost of expressive politics: fossil fuels disinvestment versus actually doing something that might help
17 Jun 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, environmental economics, global warming, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: cap and trade, carbon tax, carbon trading, climate alarmism, expressive voting, fossil fuel disinvestment, global warming, rational irrationality, Robert Stavins
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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