Teenage alcohol consumption across countries
06 Sep 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, health economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: alcohol regulation, economics of prohibition, meddlesome preferences, nanny state
The Antiscience Left and GMOs
05 Sep 2015 Leave a comment
in health economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: agricultural economics, antiscience left, conjecture and refutation, conspiracy theories, conspiracy theorists, creative destruction, GMOs, infotopia, risk risk trade-offs
Longest time without a recession
02 Sep 2015 Leave a comment
in business cycles, economic growth, economic history, fiscal policy, global financial crisis (GFC), great recession, macroeconomics, monetary economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: Australia, recessions and recoveries
The trouble with boys
31 Aug 2015 1 Comment
in applied welfare economics, labour economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, welfare reform Tags: economics of the family, lost boys, reversing gender gap, single mothers, single parents
The Trouble w Boys: U Chicago study: boys fr non-intact homes esp likely to struggle in school nber.org/papers/w17541 http://t.co/31xyA4BVQH—
W Bradford Wilcox (@WilcoxNMP) June 18, 2015
Did Mass Incarceration Destroy the Black Family?
28 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of crime, economics of love and marriage, labour economics, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, population economics, poverty and inequality, unemployment, urban economics, welfare reform Tags: crime and punishment, criminal deterrence, economics of the family, racial discrimination, single mothers, single parents, teen pregnancies
Did Mass Incarceration Destroy the Black Family? Not exactly. bit.ly/1f8jgXm http://t.co/1q2nKJnU9W—
City Journal (@CityJournal) August 13, 2015
The Bootleggers and Baptists alliance between big tobacco and anti-smoking lobbyists on e-cigarettes
25 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, economics of regulation, health economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: bootleggers and baptists, economics of smoking, meddlesome preferences, nanny state, pressure groups, special interests
Do the @NZGreens care about the fuel poverty consequences of carbon taxes?
24 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, poverty and inequality Tags: carbon tax, climate alarmism, expressive voting, fuel poverty, global warming
Who is harmed the most from higher energy costs? The poor, who spend almost 25% of their disposable income on energy? http://t.co/YOn28COXy8—
Mark J. Perry (@Mark_J_Perry) June 22, 2015
The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed #OnThisDay 1939
23 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in economic history, Marxist economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: communist party, left-wing traitors, World War II
The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed #OnThisDay in 1939. Stalin was no less evil than Hitler econ.trib.al/iCowG41 http://t.co/yxr5FCW1xg—
The Economist (@EconEurope) August 23, 2015
How big is Uber
23 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
CHART: How Big is Uber vs. Legacy Taxis? VERY, VERY BIG nationalpost.com/m/wp/blog.html… http://t.co/gz0vXPZDip—
Mark J. Perry (@Mark_J_Perry) August 22, 2015
via Summer of Uber: Everything you need to know about the upstart ride-sharing service.
Marginal tax rates of 2-income couples with 2 children in USA, UK, Australia and New Zealand since 2000
23 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of love and marriage, labour economics, labour supply, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, public economics Tags: Australia taxation and labour supply, British economy, marriage and divorce
Source: OECD StatExtract.
Why some billionaires are bad for growth, and others aren’t
22 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, financial economics, income redistribution, industrial organisation, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking, survivor principle Tags: Australia, billionaires, Russia, top 0.1%, top 1%
…Bagchi and Svejnar carefully went through the lists of all the Forbes billionaires, and divided them into those who had acquired their wealth due to political connections, and those who had not. This is kind of a slippery slope — almost all billionaires have probably benefited from government connections at one time or another.
But the researchers used a very conservative standard for classifying people as politically connected, only assigning billionaires to this group when it was clear that their wealth was a product of government connections. Just benefiting from a government that was pro-business, like those in Singapore and Hong Kong, wasn’t enough.
Rather, the researchers were looking for a situation like Indonesia under Suharto, where political connections were usually needed to secure import licenses, or Russia in the mid-1990s, when some state employees made fortunes overnight as the state privatized assets.
…The negative effects of wealth inequality are largely being driven by politically connected wealth inequality. That seems to be the primary channel that drives this relationship…
a 3.72 percent increase in the level of wealth inequality would cost a country about half a percent of real GDP per capita growth. That’s a big impact, given that average GDP growth is in the neighbourhood of two percent per year
@guardianeco slimes New Zealand’s record on #climatechange @NZGreens @GreenpeaceNZ
22 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of information, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice Tags: Australia, climate alarmism, global warming, Left-wing hypocrisy, The Guardian
https://twitter.com/guardianeco/status/634681114527797248
Excellent wrap up of carbon pricing globally, found here: worldbank.org/en/news/featur… #renewables http://t.co/Hocf9Z5cEC—
Danny Rose (@_DannyRose) August 19, 2015
Carbon pricing expanded in the last 21 months. New report shows where & how:
wrld.bg/R0EuZ http://t.co/VB69szI1je—
World Bank (@WorldBank) August 19, 2015
A carbon price gives investors a clearer view of the future risks of high-carbon assets: wrld.bg/R0GLE http://t.co/GuNnzlMMlZ—
World Bank (@WorldBank) August 21, 2015
Marginal tax rates of a nuclear family in USA, UK, Australia and New Zealand since 2000
22 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of love and marriage, labour economics, labour supply, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: Australia, British economy, marriage and divorce, taxation and labour supply
Source: OECD StatExtract.
@nzlabour @NZGreens There just isn’t no missing million out there hanging out for that hard-left clarion call @rsalmond
22 Aug 2015 1 Comment
in applied price theory, constitutional political economy, economics of information, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice Tags: British Labour Party, British politics, economics of advertising, Eric Crampton, expressive voting, false consciousness, Leftover Left, median voter theorem, New Zealand Greens, New Zealand Labour Party, rational ignorance, rational rationality
Rob Salmond has written a great blog this week on the ideological spectrum of New Zealand voters based on the New Zealand Election Study.
In the course of his blog he drove a tremendously big stake through the heart of the old left fantasy that if Labour or Greens goes left, a large block of voters not voting for them now or not voting at all (the missing million voters) will shake lose its false consciousness and follow you:
But “pulling the centre back towards the left” is massively, massively hard.
You win those people over by being relevant to them as they are, not by telling them they’re worldview needs a rethink. It is just basic psychology. Tell people they were right all along; they like you. Tell people they were wrong all along; they don’t.
And if you win a majority of centrists, you win. The New Zealand Election Study series records six MMP elections in New Zealand – the three where Labour did best among centrists were the three Labour won.
That’s another message from the academic study I quoted above – in Germany, Sweden, and the UK, the elections where the left did best among centrists were the elections where they took power. As their popularity among centrists declined, so did their seat share.
What is more disturbing for the old left fantasy of the missing million is voting for the Labour Party or Greens is correlated with ignorance rather than knowledge.
Furthermore, the more people know about economics, the less likely they are to vote for the left as Eric Crampton explains:
When they get to the polls, the ignorant are significantly more likely to support the Labour Party (4% increase in predicted probability for a standard deviation increase in ignorance) and significantly less likely to support the Green party (1% decrease in predicted probability) and United Future (0.5% decrease in predicted probability).
Understanding economics strongly predicted supporting National in 2005, which comes as little surprise: the National Party leader was former Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. A standard deviation increase in our “economic thinking” index correlates with a 5.7% increased probability of voting National, a 1.5% decreased probability of voting NZ First, and a slight decrease in the probability of voting United Future and Maori.
To make matters worse, Crampton found that joining political organisations does little to cure ignorance of politics or otherwise lead to a political awakening. Sometimes active political affiliation reduces ignorance, other times such organisational membership intensifies ignorance.
via Salmond on the centre | Kiwiblog and StephenFranks.co.nz » Blog Archive » Why the left wants everyone to vote.
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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