#climateemergency @Greenpeace @Greens @NZGreens #globalwarming
04 Jan 2020 1 Comment
in environmental economics Tags: Anti-Science left
On Borjas, Data and More Data
04 Jan 2020 Leave a comment
I see my craft as an economic historian as a dual mission. The first is to answer historical question by using economic theory (and in the process enliven economic theory through the use of history). The second relates to my obsessive-compulsive nature which can be observed by how much attention and care I give to getting the data right. My co-authors have often observed me “freaking out” over a possible improvement in data quality or be plagued by doubts over whether or not I had gone “one assumption too far” (pun on a bridge too far). Sometimes, I wish more economists would follow my historian-like freakouts over data quality. Why?
Because of this!
In that paper, Michael Clemens (whom I secretly admire – not so secretly now that I have written it on a blog) criticizes the recent paper produced by George Borjas showing the negative effect of immigration…
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The two words missing from @TheAusInstitute tweet on #globalwarming #climateemergency in Western Sydney
04 Jan 2020 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, experimental economics, global warming, politics - Australia
Child poverty – the depressing data the government’s spin doctors have not been braying about
04 Jan 2020 Leave a comment
New Year is a time for predictions to be made by commentators bemusingly confident they can foretell what the year ahead will bring, and for last year’s predictions to be checked.
On her blog today, Lindsay Mitchell has gone back a bit further than January 2019 to check on a prediction she made in September 2017 that Jacinda Ardern would increase child poverty if she became Prime Minister.
So how has that turned out?
On 7 of 9 measures introduced under the Child Poverty Reduction Act, to June 2018 poverty had increased. That’s fairly out-dated data now and not a particularly useful measuring stick.
But also now known is that children in benefit dependent households rose between June 2018 and 2019.
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California’s Year: Veering Left from Left Lane
04 Jan 2020 Leave a comment
Steve Greenhut writes at Spectator California’s Year in Review: Missing Jerry Brown Already. Excerpts in italics with my bolds.
A new progressive administration and Democratic legislative super-duper majorities put California on a collision course with reality.
Basically, the Brown era signaled the last years of traditional liberal governance. The new governor, former San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, comes out of the party’s progressive wing. Democrats have long controlled the Capitol, but an anti-Trump backlash hastened the state GOP’s long-coming meltdown. A couple of GOP lawmakers even recently jumped ship. That means no check on Democrats, which makes this shift even more noteworthy.
Looking back at 2019, we get a vision of the future — and there’s reason for concern.
Newsom was stuck dealing with raging wildfires and a bankrupt public utility that began shutting down parts of the electrical grid to prevent even more fires. This brought back…
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