EconLog Archive
Economic and Political Philosophy
Diasporas, Swamping, and Open Borders Abolitionism
Paul Collier’s Exodus makes one great obvious-once-you-think-about-it point: diasporas matter. The third big thing we know [about immigration] is that the costs of migration are greatly eased by the presence in the host country of a diaspora from the country of origin. The costs of migration fall as the size of the network of immigrants .. MORE
Monetary Policy
The ECB is steering the economy (plus a survey of nautical metaphors)
Here’s Paul Krugman suggesting that the ECB has been in a liquidity trap for years: And yes, Europe is very much in a trap. Inflation is falling because the economy is weak, and the economy is being weakened in part by falling inflation. That’s the Japan syndrome. It leads eventually to actual deflation, but to .. MORE
Economic Education
Ask Me Anything Tonight
I’ll be doing an Ask Me Anything tonight at 9 PM EST on reddit. Here’s the link. HT: Michael Tontchev for setting this up. P.S. Please post your questions on reddit, not the EconLog comments.
Economic and Political Philosophy
Obituary Hypothetical: What If Mengele Cured Cancer?
Josef Mengele is one of history’s most infamous Nazi war criminals. A doctor, he notoriously performed grotesque medical experiments on human beings without their consent. If you’re strong of stomach, here’s a small sample of what Dr. Mengele did to his victims, many of them children: Twins were subjected to weekly examinations and measurements of .. MORE
Behavioral Economics
The Sucker Tax
When people refer to humans as “sheep,” it frequently sets my neck hair on edge. Mostly because I’m a speciesist, but also because people lump together a wide variety of disparate behaviors to imply that people “mindlessly” follow social norms. If you falsely establish that people have no will of their own, then it seems .. MORE
Labor Market
Robert Murphy on the Minimum Wage
In this article, I explain why, even if the revisionist empirical studies are accurate, it still does not follow that the proposed hike in the minimum wage will be a boon for low-skilled workers. I also argue that, because critics have raised many troubling concerns about these studies, we should not accept them at face .. MORE
Uncategorized
Meet James Schneider
Allow me to introduce EconLog’s latest guest blogger, James Schneider. James was my best friend at Princeton econ. Way back in 1993, he heard a rumor I was Princeton’s token libertarian. As soon as he confirmed the rumor, we became constant companions – and started the never-ending series of arguments we’ve been having ever since. .. MORE
Macroeconomics
Where the Stress Falls
Marcus Nunes has a highly critical post contrasting Paul Krugman’s views on Argentina in 2012 and today. I won’t be quite as critical. As is often the case with Krugman it’s almost impossible to figure out what he is “really saying.” So let’s do something else instead. Let’s look at where the stress falls (title .. MORE
Labor Market
The Gains from Getting Rid of “Run Amok” Occupational Licensing
In my discussion with Alan B. Krueger on NPR on Wednesday, I pointed out that governments in the United States hamper or prevent entry into many hundreds of occupations. I gave as an example the taxicab monopoly in Monterey and I pointed out that someone who wants to put a sign on his car and .. MORE
Behavioral Economics
Gochenour-Nowrasteh on the Political Externalities of Immigration
Does immigration expand the welfare state by increasing the share of voters that benefit from government programs? Or does immigration contract the welfare state by undermining voters’ sense of national identity? Critics of the welfare state tend to think the former; fans tend to think the latter. Who’s right? The latest Cato working paper from .. MORE
Economics and Culture
How to measure the influence of think tanks?
Think tanks very often claim they are “fighting the war of ideas” – but indeed it is difficult to assess success and casualties in this kind of “war”. All non-profits have problems in finding suitable metrics for their achievements – but think tanks particularly so. After all, if your goal is to feed the poor, .. MORE
Income Distribution
Confusion about Income Inequality
My Econlog co-blogger, Scott Sumner, on his own blog, The Money Illusion, writes that G.I.’s (he thinks this is Greg Ip) post on The Economist blog is a “wonderful post.” My view: it’s good in some ways and not in others. What I liked was his paragraph about minimum wages, Costco, etc. But I think .. MORE
Fiscal Policy
Keynesian confirmation bias
When you read Keynesian blogs you get the impression that Keynesians think their model has been somehow confirmed by the events of the last few years. And yet figuring out what their model actually predicts can be maddeningly difficult, like nailing jello to the wall. Today I’ll use some examples from Paul Krugman, who is .. MORE
Behavioral Economics
I’m Too Busy Fighting Tyranny to Feed My Family
Suppose your Facebook friend, John, is a political junkie. Every day, he floods your Newsfeed with the latest political news and op-eds. He provides play-by-play coverage of protests and rallies around the globe. He travels hundreds of miles every week to personally attend these events. In virtually every case, you agree with John. If we .. MORE
Behavioral Economics
Self-Harm is a Luxury
From Cutler and Lleras-Muney, “Understanding Differences in Health Behaviors by Education” (Journal of Health Economics 2010): Differences in prices or in response to prices are a second potential reason for education-related differences in health behaviors. This shows up most clearly in behaviors involving the medical system. In surveys, lower income people regularly report that time .. MORE
Upcoming Events
Henderson and Krueger on NPR Today
This morning (Pacific Time) and noon (Eastern time), I’ll be on the show “Here and Now,” discussing income inequality. The other economist is Alan Krueger, formerly the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Obama. Here and Now. It’s broadcast nationally on 462 stations. Here’s a link to help you figure out what .. MORE
Behavioral Economics
In Praise of Passivity
“In Praise of Passivity” is another gem from Mike Huemer, my favorite philosopher. Thesis: Voters, activists, and political leaders of the present day are in the position of medieval doctors. They hold simple, prescientific theories about the workings of society and the causes of social problems, from which they derive a variety of remedies-almost all .. MORE
Income Distribution
Why so glum?
America’s pretty much the same place as it was 6 years ago. If you drive around the country you see the same sorts of neighborhoods you saw 6 years ago. Incomes haven’t changed very much. But Kevin Drum has a new post that seems to show that we are nowhere near as rich as we .. MORE
Economic Education
Marginal Tax Rates: Singing Taxman to My Class
UPDATE BELOW: Often, when I teach my classes about marginal tax rates, I give them a little history about such rates. They’re shocked when I tell them that the top U.S. federal marginal tax rate on individual income in the 1950s and early 1960s was 91 percent. Then I tell that that Great Britain was .. MORE
Eurozone crisis
German President defends the market economy
Germany’s President, Joachim Gauck, has given a talk at the Walter Eucken Institute. The Eucken Institute keeps the tradition of the Freiburg school of economics alive. For an introduction to Ordoliberalism, you may give a look to this paper by Viktor Vanberg. Also, Larry White has a very interesting (and most amusing) chapter on Ordoliberalism .. MORE
Cross-country Comparisons
Pritchett on Private vs. Government Schools
From The Rebirth of Education: Whereas formerly only the elite may have gone to private schools, there has been a massive proliferation of private schools, especially in Asia and Africa. These budget-level private schools are producing better learning outcomes, often substantially better, than publicly controlled schools – even for the same students – and often .. MORE