David Neumark and @GlennLoury on the minimum wage - and other, better ways to tackle poverty https://t.co/Cm99C5Ghgi pic.twitter.com/8MTE1LCsww
— Steve Stewart-Williams (@SteveStuWill) October 15, 2016
.@EconomicPolicy How does this become an argument for rather than against doubling the minimum wage to $15?
12 Oct 2018 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, minimum wage, politics - USA
The essence of Josh Wright’s FTC tenure was to ensure that benefits outweigh costs; the rest is commentary
12 Oct 2018 Leave a comment
More direct democracy or a more directed democracy in populist-run Italy?
12 Oct 2018 1 Comment
For the first time since its inception, the Five Star Movement finds itself in government, with the stated intention of increasing the use of direct democracy by increasing the circumstances in which a national referendum can be held. Carlo Fusaro examines the proposals and their potential impact on Italian democracy.
This post intends to report on the most recent initiatives concerning referendums by the new populist majority in Italy, as represented in the government formed by the Five Star Movement (M5S) and by the League (formerly known as the Northern League), following the 4 March 2018 elections.
The proposals
While the two vice-premiers Matteo Salvini and Luigi di Maio have been making headlines in other areas, Riccardo Fraccaro, a University of Trento graduate in international environmental law who serves as the minister for relations with parliament and direct democracy, has recently announced the constitutional reform strategy of the Cabinet.
Since…
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Critical Junctures and Path Dependency in “Why Nations Fail”: Implications for U.S. Foreign Aid Policy
12 Oct 2018 Leave a comment
Why nations fail is a great book and a great read but reviewers like David Levine were quite good in pointing out its many flaws.
Greeted with wide acclaim, Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty, should put to bed all debate on using foreign aid to promote economic development on a national level.
Authors Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson effectively deploy path dependency to explain the trajectories of the political institutions that form the core of their argument: Nations with “inclusive” political institutions succeed economically whereas those saddled with extractive” political institutions fail. Citing cases from myriad times and places, the authors demonstrate the relationship between political institutions and economic development. The authors tether their argument to Schumpeter’s idea of creative destruction in the marketplace: No creative destruction, no long-term development. Nations encumbered by extractive political institutions typically privilege monopoly. And so, over time, their economies atrophy.
So far, so good. In deploying path dependency to explain why institutions, once in place, tend to persist, authors add a solid…
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Chevron to Ecuador: Keep Your Promise, Clean up the Amazon #ISDS #TPPA
12 Oct 2018 Leave a comment
in international economic law, international economics, International law, law and economics, property rights Tags: trade and investment
Jason Brennan on why capitalism is a better utopia than socialism
12 Oct 2018 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, Austrian economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economics of bureaucracy, entrepreneurship, human capital, labour economics, occupational choice, Public Choice, unions Tags: economics of socialism, The Great Enrichment
The Hindenburg Line Breaks – The Lost Battalion Returns I THE GREAT WAR Week 220
12 Oct 2018 Leave a comment
in defence economics, war and peace Tags: World War I
3 Unexpected Dangers of Space Travel
12 Oct 2018 Leave a comment
in economics of media and culture Tags: space
IPCC SR15 Report lacks cost/benefit analysis of ‘Goldilocks thinking’
11 Oct 2018 Leave a comment
The UN climate report known as SR15 calls for high carbon taxes from $135 to $5,500/ton while a Wall Street Journal op-ed by Bjorn Lomborg of Oct. 9, 2018 says the costs of proposed CO2 cuts are not worth it, leading the Friends of Science Society to slam the UN report as Goldilocks thinking without any rational cost-benefit analysis or practical plan.
Friends of Science says the WSJ paragraph in which Lomborg describes the economic impact on Europe of cutting emissions 80% by 2050 should be front page news in every newspaper in Europe and North America. Lomborg notes that, with a well designed and coordinated climate policy (i.e. the opposite of what European and North American governments have now), the annual costs will reach U.S. $3.3 trillion, “more than twice what EU governments spend today on health, education, recreation, housing, environment, police and defense combined”.
“The policy will make…
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