Chris Trotter writes – Te Pāti Māori’s consistent failure to participate in the day-to-day business of Parliament is telling. Citizens availing themselves of the consultative machinery of Parliament, select committees in particular, report Te Pāti Māori no-shows with a regularity strongly suggestive of its non-participation being more of a feature than a bug. The argument that […]
Te Pāti Māori’s future: in the House, or on the streets?
Te Pāti Māori’s future: in the House, or on the streets?
05 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
The TPM putsch is on
04 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
David Farrar writes – Back on September 12 I blogged: Reliable sources tell me this is much bigger than I realised. There is a huge split in TPM, basically between the Tamihere aligned MPs and the rest. I have been told that some existing MPs are facing deselection, and that this is behind what we are […]
The TPM putsch is on
Austria-Hungary Disintegrates – The Ottoman Empire Leaves the War I THE …
03 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, war and peace Tags: World War I
These are large differences
03 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of love and marriage Tags: dating markets, economics of fertility, marriage and divorce
Bill Gates Returns to Energy Pragmatism
03 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, politics - USA Tags: climate alarmism
Alex Epstein reports regarding Bill Gates latest statement downplaying climate doomsterism, and reminds us that he hasn’t changed his mind so much as he is now able to speak freely. For example, watch this short video of Bill Gates in 2019. Alex Epstein posted his conversation with Fox News Will Cain: Why Bill Gates is […]
Bill Gates Returns to Energy Pragmatism
A new critique of RCTs
02 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in econometerics, history of economic thought
Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) are the gold standard for evaluating the effects of interventions because they rely on simple assumptions. Their validity also depends on an implicit assumption: that the research process itself—including how participants are assigned—does not affect outcomes. In this paper, I challenge this assumption by showing that outcomes can depend on the […]
A new critique of RCTs
David Seymour exposes the fraud of the anti-colonial crusade
02 Nov 2025 1 Comment
ACT Leader David Seymour hit the nail on the head with his latest post about the Kapa-Kingi’s and Te Pāti Māori.
David Seymour exposes the fraud of the anti-colonial crusade
Italy Attacks – The Battle of Vittorio Veneto I THE GREAT WAR Week 222
01 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, war and peace Tags: World War I
Does the state need to own houses to help families?
01 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of bureaucracy, industrial organisation, law and economics, managerial economics, market efficiency, organisational economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, public economics, urban economics Tags: public housing, state ownership
A good report from the NZ Initiative that looks at whether ownership of state houses is the best way to help low income NZ families with housing. Some key extracts: That $29,000 per unit estimated cost is not the cost of income related rents – they are the same regardless of whether the state or […]
Does the state need to own houses to help families?
Irony: quitters are making tobacco companies rich
01 Nov 2025 1 Comment
in applied price theory, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, managerial economics Tags: economics of smoking
ANALYSIS from the Economist: When lots of people smoked, there were many “price-elastic” consumers. In plain English, they were sensitive to increases in the cost of a cigarette. As more people have quit, however, only the most committed smokers are still puffing. Companies have responded by raising prices at an ever-quicker pace. MY COMMENT: In…
Irony: quitters are making tobacco companies rich
Capital gains tax: how Hipkins has abandoned policy soundness for a symbolic gesture
01 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in fiscal policy, income redistribution, macroeconomics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, public economics Tags: taxation and investment
Peter Dunne writes – In 1994 the then Labour Opposition resolved to introduce a new top tax rate of 39 cents in the dollar. The reason for the policy was purely political, not fiscal. Labour was shedding votes to Jim Anderton’s left-wing Alliance at the time and wanted to do something symbolic to staunch the flow. […]
Capital gains tax: how Hipkins has abandoned policy soundness for a symbolic gesture
The Great Escape
01 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in economic history, health economics Tags: anti-vaccination movement, child mortality, The Great Escape, vaccines
Erasing the Duke of York: The Roll of the Peerage and the limits of removal
31 Oct 2025 1 Comment
in law and economics, property rights Tags: British constitutional law
Buckingham Palace today announced that the King has “initiated a formal process to remove the Style, Titles and Honours of Prince Andrew.” The style of Royal Highness, the title of prince, and his appointments to the various chivalric orders can be revoked under the royal prerogative without too much difficulty,[1] but Andrew’s peerages are another […]
Erasing the Duke of York: The Roll of the Peerage and the limits of removal
Valuing free goods
31 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation
There is a new AEJ Macro paper by Brynjolfsson, et.al. on how to value free goods. Here is one of the concrete measures: Using this approach, we estimate the reservation price [for giving up Facebook] to be $2,152 in 2003 US dollars. That is for the 2017 version of Facebook. Note this does not measure […]
Valuing free goods
The Impact of Jury Race in Criminal Trials
31 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, econometerics, economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: crime and punishment, law and order, racial discrimination
In a great paper, The Impact of Jury Race in Criminal Trials, Shamena Anwar, Patrick Bayer and Randi Hjalmarsson exploit random variation in the jury pool to estimate the effect of race on criminal trials. The authors have data from nearly 800 trials in two Florida counties. On any given day, a jury pool is randomly […]
The Impact of Jury Race in Criminal Trials
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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