EconLog Archive
Economics of Education
Two Bad Ideas on Student Debt, Part 2
How about this: instead of forgiving everybody’s college debt, we force all the colleges who scammed millions of Americans into degrees in Useless Theory Masquerading As Valuable Life Skills to grant refunds. That would end the grift right quick. This is a November 16 tweet by Ben Shapiro. I’ve heard this idea repeated a number .. MORE
Finance
The importance of expectations
I often argue that current NGDP depends heavily on future expected NGDP. That’s also a prediction of modern New Keynesian macro models. However, this generalization is less true during the current Covid pandemic, as current output is artificially depressed by social distancing. But even social distancing cannot stop asset markets from looking ahead. The current .. MORE
Cost-benefit Analysis
Life-Years Lost: The Quantity and The Quality
A few weeks ago, the NYT reported that “The Coronavirus Has Claimed 2.5 Million Years of Potential Life.” If you read the original study, you’ll discover one crucial caveat: The authors’s calculations assume that COVID victims would have had the standard life expectancy for Americans of their age. They freely admit that this is unrealistic .. MORE
Cross-country Comparisons
It Pays to be Positive?
Hong Kong will give $645 dollars to all those who accept to be tested for Covid19 and are positive. The number of cases, and deaths, are on the rise in Hong Kong but everything seems under control, given the fact Hong Kong’s population is 7.4 million. Lombardy, where I live, is the home of 10 .. MORE
Liberty
Judith M. Hermis Letter to Governor Newsom
Earlier this month, Judith Hermis, one of my junior colleagues at the Naval Postgraduate School, wrote a letter to Governor Gavin Newsom and sent me a copy. I edited it and she accepted my edits. So the letter you see below is not the same one she sent. But it is true to the spirit .. MORE
Cost-benefit Analysis
Sullivan and Henderson Talk on School Shutdowns
Last Thursday, my Naval Postgraduate School colleague Ryan Sullivan and I made a case against school shutdowns in a Zoom talk to a local Monterey group called The Old Capitol Club. It’s an actual physical location in downtown Monterey and I’ve given 2 talks there in person in the last 20 years, something I refer .. MORE
Behavioral Economics
The Anti-Jerk Law
You’ve probably had a boss who was a jerk. Indeed, you may be working under a jerk of a boss right now. Question: Would it be a good idea to pass an Anti-Jerk Law to protect workers from these jerky employers? Like existing employment discrimination laws, the Anti-Jerk Law would allow aggrieved employees to sue .. MORE
Politics and Economics
Elections Are Not a Ruler’s Toy Nor a Sacred Panacea
Some Republican leaders have, at last, started to blame Mr. Trump for burning the bridges behind him after being fired by the electorate or, perhaps more exactly (nothing is grandiose in that presidency), for breaking what he thinks are his toys after he felt scolded. (Will he also scratch graffiti on the oval office desk?) .. MORE
Fiscal Policy
MMT bleg
Modern Monetary Theory is a term that one encounters with increasing frequency. It is often applied to a specific policy, such as advocacy of expansionary fiscal policy. But that’s not a very useful definition. Lots of economists now advocate expansionary fiscal policy in the current environment of very low interest rates and high unemployment. MMT .. MORE
Incentives
Warren Coats’s Experience with Unions
My experiences with unions have not been good. My father was a Shell Oil union member. His union went on strike long ago when my mother was pregnant with my younger brother. After a few months on strike it was growing obvious (according to my father) that it would end soon in failure from the .. MORE
Cross-country Comparisons
The relationship between identity and politics is complicated
Back in 1976, I drove from Wisconsin to the Canadian Rockies. In North Dakota I drove past endless miles of wheat farms, with some sunflower farms thrown in. The countryside looked much the same after crossing the border into Saskatchewan, Canada. But one thing changes dramatically at the border. Just south of the border the .. MORE
Economics of Education
End the School Shutdown
As promised, this is the full op/ed that Ryan Sullivan and I had published in the print edition of the Wall Street Journal on October 21. Because today (Saturday) is my 70th birthday, I will not be working. So I might not reply to comments until Sunday or Monday. End the School Shutdown In-person classes .. MORE
Moral Reasoning
Postmodernism is not an inherently left wing ideology
Gordon Hanson directed me to a brilliant 1992 essay by Richard Rorty, which refutes the claim that postmodern philosophy is an inherently left wing concept. Rorty describes “two cultural wars”—an important one between the left and the right, and an unimportant one within the left: The second cultural war is . . . between those who .. MORE
Economics and Culture
Great Line from T.S. Eliot
Eliot could not have found a kinder, or more effective, way of putting me at ease. As we sat down, he said, “Tell me, as one editor to another, do you have much author trouble?” I could not help laughing, he laughed in return–he had a booming laugh–and that was the beginning of our friendship. .. MORE
#ReadWithMe
Life, Liberty, and M*A*S*H: Other Civil Liberties
This fall, LIFE magazine has published a special issue commemorating the 50th anniversary of the movie M*A*S*H. Despite the hook, the issue focuses on the ensuing TV series, which ran from 1972 to 1983. Though the show has often been characterized as being politically left-wing, it actually is heavily classically liberal, celebrating the individual, civil .. MORE
Economics of Education
Two Bad Ideas on Student Loans, Part 1
There are various proposals for the federal government to deal with student debt. I’ve seen two main ones. The one I’ll deal with here is the proposal to bail out people who have student loans. I came across this post from Justin Wolfers, written in September 2011. I debated Justin about lockdowns in Apriland We .. MORE
Cost-benefit Analysis
Donehower on the Net Fiscal Effect of Low-Skilled Immigrants
When I emailed the editors of the National Academy of Sciences report on The Economic and Fiscal Impact of Immigration about Jason Richwine’s criticism, they responded swiftly and scrupulously. Series editor Francine Blau put me in touch with Gretchen Donehower, one of the authors of the section. Donehower sent me the following response. Reprinted with .. MORE
Economic History
The Populists and Napoléon
One of the many fascinating observations in Charles Postel’s The Populist Vision (Oxford University Press, 2007, p. 164) is the sweet spot that American populists of the late 19th century generally had for emperor Napoléon Bonaparte, the French dictator at the beginning of the century: In the 1890s, a Napoleon revival spread in the United .. MORE
Statistical theory and methods
Dogs, Mountain Lions, and COVID-19
How dangerous are mountain lions? The data tell an interesting story. Since 1980, there have been only 13 attacks in all of California (where David and Charley live) and three people have died as a result. Compare this with attacks by dogs. Each year in California, about 100,000 dog attacks cause their victims to get .. MORE
Politics and Economics
College grads and highly specialized societies
Julius Probst directed me to a list of the share of whites that are college educated in various states. (See the list at the bottom of the post.) Note that the 10 states with the highest college share all voted for Joe Biden, as well as 8 of the next 10. Only Texas and Utah .. MORE
Cost-benefit Analysis
Richwine on the Net Fiscal Effect of Low-Skilled Immigrants
In Open Borders, I heavily rely on the National Academy of Sciences report on The Economic and Fiscal Consequences of Immigration to estimate the net fiscal effect of immigration. Recently one of my graduate students pointed out this post by Jason Richwine criticizing my interpretation of the results. Among dropouts, immigrants in the 25-64 and 65+ age .. MORE