Targeting big existing businesses may be tempting to politicians, but ensuring market openness will do more good Eric Crampton writes – It’s fair to say that economists like competition. It’s also fair to say that when politicians start talking about competition, economists ought to get a little bit nervous.
When politicians campaign on competition, be very worried
When politicians campaign on competition, be very worried
31 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, Armen Alchian, Austrian economics, comparative institutional analysis, economics of information, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, experimental economics, history of economic thought, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: competition law
Reviewing Covid experiences and policies
30 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, fiscal policy, health and safety, health economics, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, macroeconomics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice Tags: economics of pandemics
I’ve spent the last week writing a fairly substantial review of a recent book (“Australia’s Pandemic Exceptionalism: How we crushed the curve but lost the race”) by a couple of Australian academic economists on Australia’s pandemic policies and experiences. For all its limitations, there isn’t anything similar in New Zealand. What we do have is […]
Reviewing Covid experiences and policies
ANANISH CHAUDHURI: Oral submission on the Treaty Principles Bill
30 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, development economics, discrimination, economic history, growth disasters, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: affirmative action, Age of Enlightenment, constitutional law, free speech, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left
Presented Jan 30, 2025 Kia Ora. Morena. Tena Koutou, Tena Koutou, Tena Koutou Katoa. My name is Ananish Chaudhuri. I am Professor of Economics at the University of Auckland. My views are my own and not those of my employer. Thank you very much for giving me an opportunity to speak this morning.…
ANANISH CHAUDHURI: Oral submission on the Treaty Principles Bill
Trump Dumps the Paris Agreement: Is it a Big Deal?
29 Jan 2025 1 Comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, International law, politics - USA Tags: 2024 presidential election, climate activists
President Trump’s executive order for the US to exit the Paris agreement is a huge deal, not least in saving the nation hundreds of millions of dollars which would have been spent on climate boondoggles such as President Biden’s euphemistically termed Inflation Reduction Act and vast transfers in climate funds pledged to developing countries. Let not the naysayers say otherwise.
Trump Dumps the Paris Agreement: Is it a Big Deal?
Trying to reconcile indigenous ways of knowing with “white” ways of being in New Zealand
29 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: Age of Enlightenment, conjecture and refutation, free speech, philosophy of science, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left
This article actually appeared on the Museum of New Zealand’s website, and is about as explicit an argument for the country adopting indigenous “ways of knowing” (Mātauranga Māori, or MM) as I have found. You may remember that MM is a mixture of practical knowledge, religion, superstition, morals, teleology and guidelines for living. Despite this […]
Trying to reconcile indigenous ways of knowing with “white” ways of being in New Zealand
My 92nd St. Y debate with Robert Kuttner on income inequality
29 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, entrepreneurship, human capital, income redistribution, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, Public Choice Tags: top 1%
Here goes: Ex po st, the Manhattan audience swung thirty (!) points in my favor, compared to the pre-debate poll. This was a fun event for me.
My 92nd St. Y debate with Robert Kuttner on income inequality
The 1920s immigration restrictions
29 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, econometerics, economic history, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, politics - USA Tags: economics of immigration, racial discrimination
The 1920s immigration restrictions in the US did not affect manufacturing wages. The US immigration restrictions of the 1920s lowered the occupational standings of whites and incumbent immigrants. US counties with more immigrants excluded by the quotas of the 1920s saw increased in-migration. During the Great Black Migration of the US, black southerners moved to […]
The 1920s immigration restrictions
Remembering Paris
28 Jan 2025 1 Comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, politics - USA Tags: climate activists, climate alarmism
The National Review has an excellent piece (here) on Donald Trump’s burial of the Paris climate accords entitled “Forgetting Paris”.
Remembering Paris
Trump Truth Bombs ‘Green’ Energy (Five EOs)
28 Jan 2025 1 Comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, politics - USA Tags: solar power, wind power
Trump’s executive order bomb, followed by Congressional action to limit funds from the IRA and IIJA, promise to gut, or profoundly reshape, the U.S. green energy movement. January 2025 may begin a long decline for green energy and a return to sensible energy policy.
Trump Truth Bombs ‘Green’ Energy (Five EOs)
Here Lies the Systematic Racism
28 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economic history, economics of education, labour economics, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, urban economics Tags: political correctness. regressive left, racial discrimination. free speech
I pretty much hate the term “systematic racism,” which is a clever rebranding by the DEI folks of the Christian concept of “original sin.” Try to tell the Church that you have behaved ethically? Doesn’t matter, you still need us to remove the stain of your original sin. Try to tell the DEI trainer you…
Here Lies the Systematic Racism
ELIZABETH RATA: Oral Presentation to the Parliamentary Justice Committee on the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill
28 Jan 2025 1 Comment
in economic history, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: constitutional law, racial discrimination
January 27, 2025 What is the best title given to any New Zealand legislation? My money is on the 1877 Education Act – ‘An Act to make Further Provision for the Education of the People of New Zealand’ – the People of New Zealand. So as early as the 1870s there’s the commitment to a…
ELIZABETH RATA: Oral Presentation to the Parliamentary Justice Committee on the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill
MICHAEL BASSETT: REFORMING THE WAITANGI TRIBUNAL
27 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in economic history, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: constitutional law, racial discrimination
So loud are the squeals from the likes of Debbie Ngarewa-Packer against the new appointments to the Waitangi Tribunal that I can only assume that Minister Tama Potaka has got things right. And that the new members are likely to shake the organisation into some sort of compliance with its mission that was set out…
MICHAEL BASSETT: REFORMING THE WAITANGI TRIBUNAL
Spot on
27 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left
A celebration of Christopher Hitchens by Richard Dawkins, Stephen Fry, Douglas Murray, and Lawrence Krauss
27 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: Age of Enlightenment, free speech, Freedom of religion, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left, sex discrimination
Christopher Hitchens, whom many of us admire despite occasional differences of opinion, died at only 62 on December 14, 2011. Lawrence Krauss organized an event with four of Hitchens’s friends, all reminiscing about the Great Lion of Rhetoric. The panel was filmed in London on December 13, 2024—just 19 days ago—and I’ve put the video […]
A celebration of Christopher Hitchens by Richard Dawkins, Stephen Fry, Douglas Murray, and Lawrence Krauss
The Energy Storage Fiasco — How Soon Will It Be Abandoned?
27 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: batteries
It seems that the frequency of these spontaneous fires increases with the size of the battery. Can this problem be solved? I have no idea. But it certainly has not been solved yet.
The Energy Storage Fiasco — How Soon Will It Be Abandoned?
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
Recent Comments