Figure 1: New Zealand income and productivity gap
GDP per New Zealander remains well below leading OECD economies due to a large shortfall in labour productivity
10 Feb 2015 Leave a comment
in economic growth, macroeconomics, politics - New Zealand
Economics New Zealand: Did we move too quickly?
09 Feb 2015 Leave a comment
in macroeconomics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: monetary policy
The first Paul Krugman on efficiency wage arguments for a higher minimum wage
09 Feb 2015 Leave a comment
in labour economics, minimum wage, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, poverty and inequality Tags: George Bush derangement syndrome, living wage, Paul Krugman, public intellectuals
HT: economistsview
Should car insurance be run like earthquake insurance in New Zealand?
07 Feb 2015 1 Comment
in economics of natural disasters, politics - New Zealand Tags: Christchurch earthquake, disaster relief
Would you think it is a good idea that you have two car insurers if and only if your car is hit by a pink car? That’s how they run earthquake insurance in New Zealand.
This is how the system of earthquake in insurance in New Zealand would run for a car: if your car is in an accident with a pink car, the first say $2000 of the damages is paid for by a special insurer. After that, your normal car insurance policy applies.
I don’t know of anyone who insures their car with two different people depending on the probability of different events, possibly because I don’t know that many people who are extremely stupid.
In New Zealand, the first $100,000 of earthquake damage is insured by a government insurance company called the Earthquake Commission. After that, your normal homeowners insurance covers the rest of the earthquake damage. The premium for the earthquake insurance with the Earthquake Commission is collected as part of your normal insurance premium to your home insurance provider.
Fortunately for you, if this scheme of insurance applied to your car, the repairs are not delayed for several years with High Court litigation over whether the Christchurch earthquake was a single event or a succession of separate earthquakes. If the two major earthquakes in Christchurch together with the thousands of after-shocks was a succession of separate earthquakes, the first $100,000 of damages for each of these several thousand after-shocks is the responsibility of the Earthquake Commission, not the normal insurer of the house.
Would it make sense to insure cars in the same way earthquake insurance is run in New Zealand? The answer is no. Any sensible person buys their insurance from one company and lets that insurance company sought out reinsurance of major and rare events with the global reinsurance pools.
With global reinsurance pools, there is no reason for a separate government insurance against earthquakes in New Zealand. The Earthquake Commission and its separate scheme of insurance for earthquakes should be abolished as superfluous and a magnet for litigation over insurance company liabilities in the case of major earthquakes.
the number of terrorist incidents driven by religion has increased dramatically since 2000
07 Feb 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, economics of religion, law and economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: war against terror
HT: wonkblog
Parties and the Gender Gap | The Mischiefs of Faction
07 Feb 2015 Leave a comment
in politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: voter demographics
Competing visions of success – left and right
06 Feb 2015 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, entrepreneurship, human capital, labour economics, occupational choice, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: activists, distributive justice, do gooders, expressive voting, Leftover Left, poverty and inequality, rational ignorance, rational irrationality, top 1%
A clickable timeline of central banking activity during the 2008 financial crisis
05 Feb 2015 Leave a comment
This map requires the tyranny of distance types to predict the coming boom for New Zealand
05 Feb 2015 Leave a comment
in economic growth, economic history, politics - New Zealand Tags: geography, global economic hubs
HT: https://twitter.com/tutor2u_econ/status/552013472247341056?s=09
Why popularist politics work: People Are Terrible at Estimating Income Inequality
05 Feb 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of information, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: expressive voting, poverty and inequality, rational ignorance, rational irrationality, the top 1%, urban myths
Turns out ‘Vote Positive’ not a new slogan after all for NZ Labour!
03 Feb 2015 Leave a comment
in politics - New Zealand Tags: 2014 New Zealand election
HT: The Guardian
Does global warming denial and the anti-vaccination movement march to the same anti-science step?
03 Feb 2015 Leave a comment
in climate change, economics of information, economics of media and culture, environmental economics, global warming, health economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: anti-vaccination movement, climate alarmists, expressive politics, expressive voting, psychology of persuasion
In the last post, I presented evidence, collected as part of the CCP Vaccine Risk Perception study, that showed that the trope has no meaningful connection to fact.
Those who accept and reject human evolution, those who believe in and those who are skeptical about climate change, all overwhelmingly agree that vaccine risks are low and vaccine benefits high.
The idea that either climate change skepticism or disbelief in evolution denotes hostility to science or lack of comprehension of science is false, too. That’s something that a large number of social science studies show. The CCP Vaccine Risk study doesn’t add anything to that body of evidence.
Vaccination rates are a serious issue. Do those that are trying to lift vaccination rates think they going to get anywhere by calling people stupid, corrupt and in the pay of a multinational.
Of course not. This matter is serious. It’s a real public health risk.
People are persuaded to vaccinate through gentle messages providing facts in a way they can understand that also respects their knowledge, their intellect, and their concerns for the safety of the children. You don’t win people over by insulting them.
The climate alarmists are so insulting because they have no interest in persuading the people that are actually talking to. They are reaching out to members on the audience were are on the margin, and appealing to their political base, including the fundraising base by showing how staunch they are in slaying the Dragon.
Evidence of mass kidnappings of Occupy protesters
03 Feb 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of media and culture, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: activists, do gooders, expressive voting, Left-wing hypocrisy, occupy movement, superstar effect
Because the most-popular songs now stay on the charts for months, the relative value of a hit has exploded.
The top 1 percent of bands and solo artists now earn 77 percent of all revenue from recorded music, media researchers report. And even though the amount of digital music sold has surged, the 10 best-selling tracks command 82 percent more of the market than they did a decade ago.
The advent of do-it-yourself artists in the digital age may have grown music’s long tail, but its fat head keeps getting fatter.
The only explanation for the failure of the Twitter Left to protest against this concentration or of wealth and massive rise in ticket prices to the downtrodden young public that go to concerts is a mass kidnapping of the protesters in the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Street by street confirmed measles cases in Auckland, New Zealand 2014
03 Feb 2015 Leave a comment
in health economics, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: anti-vaccination movement, measles
video link is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAluTnnLyF4
Data is for the Auckland health board district.
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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