Here’s a quick update on my critique of a letter issued by three organismal-biology-society Presidents claiming that sex isn’t binary—not in humans and, indeed, not in any species. The signers were the Presidents of the Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE), the American Society of Naturalists (ASN), and the Society of Systematic Biologists (SSB), […]
There is much work yet to be done in New Zealand to improve housing affordability, despite recent declines in valuations. Eric Crampton writes – It wasn’t that long ago that New Zealand’s housing market made international news because of its insanity. In 2016, The Guardian tagged Auckland as the “hottest property market in the world” […]
I’m a big fan of Ireland’s low corporate tax rate for three reasons. First, it shows that good tax policy generates positive economic outcomes as per-capita GDP in Ireland has grown by record amounts. Second, it shows that lower tax rates can in some cases lead to more revenue. Sort of a turbo-charged version of […]
What do you need to believe that the ‘climate crisis’ is over (or indeed, never was). And that the climate problem – one among many – needs addressing.
One explanation of the gender wage gap is taste discrimination, as in Becker (1957). We test for taste discrimination by constructing a novel measure of misogyny using Google Trends data on searches that include derogatory terms for women. We find—surprisingly, in our view—that misogyny is an economically meaningful and statistically significant predictor of the wage […]
I met Fabio Rojas in January of 1990 when we were both freshmen at UC Berkeley. In 1994, he was the best man at my wedding. Now he’s the chairman of Indiana University’s Sociology Department. Last year, he and Charlotta Stern published Sociology and Classical Liberalism in Dialogue: Freedom is Something We Do Together. Here,…
I wish I had a happier post for number 30,000, but you’re stuck with this one. However, it’s in line with the kind of stuff I’ve been writing about for a while, so it’s appropriate. Today we must deal with a letter from the Presidents of three organismal evolution and ecology societies (The Society for […]
Here is a redux of our 2016 Journal of Economic Perspectives piece. Here is the abstract: We can imagine a plausible case for government support of science based on traditional economic reasons of externalities and public goods. Yet when it comes to government support of grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for economic research, […]
Legal Newsline reports the string of climate lawfare defeats in their article Fifth judge agrees with Big Oil, dismisses another climate change case. Excerpts in italics with my bolds and added images. TRENTON, N.J. (Legal Newsline) – A New Jersey state court judge refuses to be the one who sets international energy standards and has […]
Radio NZ reports: The New Zealand government says the Cook Islands has failed to properly consult it on proposed agreements its Prime Minister Mark Brown will be signing in China this week. Brown has now left for China without further consultation, RNZ understands. In a statement this afternoon a spokesperson for foreign affairs minister Winston […]
Democratic leaders continued to ramp up their “rage rhetoric” following the inauguration. We have already seen violent protests and planned assassinations directed against Trump Administration figures. Despite the growing tensions, Democrats are ratcheting up claims of a “coup” and calling for Democrats to “fight in the streets.” After failing to win the election with claims […]
Other than Art Laffer, I think of myself as the world’s biggest advocate of the Laffer Curve. I’ve literally written hundreds of columns explaining and promoting the concept. My goal is to help people understand that there is not a linear relationship between tax rates and tax revenue. Why is this the case? Because when […]
Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
“We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. We know that in secrecy error undetected will flourish and subvert”. - J Robert Oppenheimer.
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