EconLog Archive
Economics of Education
Gifts for the Gifted
Frances Woolley looks at studies that question the effectiveness of “gifted and talented” programs. here is my take-away: There are great wads of resources thrown at gifted education, and little evidence of positive results for border-line gifted students The reason that borderline gifted students are important is that this is where you can measure the .. MORE
Economic Education
Appearances
1. Today I’m supposed to be on the Dylan Ratigan Show on MSNBC between 4 and 5 PM EST. 2. On May 25 at 4 PM, the Cato Institute is holding a book forum on Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids. Open to the public, of course, and I’ve got a dream discussant: Charles Murray.
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Sanandaji on the Political Externalities of Immigration
I think the political externalities of immigration are greatly overblown. This piece by Chicago Public Policy Ph.D. student Tino Sanandaji presents the other side more effectively than anyone else I’ve read. I’m too busy to reply for a while, but enjoy. The heart of the piece: …Berggren and other libertarians and liberals who rely on .. MORE
Economic and Political Philosophy
The Morality of Fractional Reserve Banking
One of Murray Rothbard’s strangest doctrines is that fractional reserve banking (i.e. virtually all banking with which First World consumers have any direct experience) is inherently fraudulent and should therefore be illegal. As he puts it in The Mystery of Banking: It should be clear that modern fractional reserve banking is a shell game, a .. MORE
Uncategorized
Notes from Perry Mehrling
These all come from Understanding Fischer Black, written ten years ago. From this point of view, economic growth appears as a process of increasing sectoral differentiation and increasing temporal roundaboutness, a process with no apparent end in sight. What we observe as accumulation of capital, physical and human, is just the form that the process .. MORE
Fiscal Policy
Welcome to Our Future
Business Insider reports, The Irish government plans to institute a tax on private pensions to drive jobs growth I expect our government, too, to punish those of us who try to save for our own retirement. They need the money more than we do.
Economics of Health Care
All the Medical Care that Money Could Buy
I believe we could spend our entire national income on health care. Not by frittering money away, but by spending it on goods and services that even in small ways could improve the odds of better health. (Examples below.) I find that most people in health policy agree with that assessment, but rarely do they .. MORE
Finance: stocks, options, etc.
I Suspect Options Writers
James Hamilton writes, Count me among those who maintain that buying high and selling low is unlikely to be a successful trading strategy. But if enough people believe otherwise, they can wreak a bit of havoc on the rest of us before they themselves go belly up. There is a class of traders who will .. MORE
Family Economics
Posner and Becker on 10 Billion People
Posner‘s a nervous optimist: But suppose world population will reach 10.1 billion by the end of this century. Would that be a good or a bad thing? Arguably a good thing, on several grounds. One is that it would enable greater specialization, which reduces costs. Second is that it would increase the returns to innovation .. MORE
Political Economy
The Secession Solution
From a news report: A long-simmering movement by liberal stalwarts in southern Arizona to break away from the rest of the largely conservative state is at a boiling point as secession backers press to bring their longshot ambition to the forefront of Arizona politics. Maybe I should donate to this cause. Secession is a really .. MORE
Macroeconomics
Has Someone Not Written This Paper?
Title: Technological Unemployment in a Stock-Adjustment Model Abstract: Innovation can cause overproduction of consumer durable goods relative to the desired stock. Unemployment can result, until new industries emerge to absorb labor. Think of the auto industry in the 1920s. Given the price of cars, suppose that the desired stock of cars is one car per .. MORE
Family Economics
The Extra Burden of Childless Elders
Contrary to popular opinion, it has always been rare for people to financially support their aged parents. In earlier times, people died too soon to “collect their pension” from their kids. Nowadays the elderly live long enough to collect, but they’re still far more likely to give money to their kids and grandkids rather than .. MORE
Books: Reviews and Suggested Readings
Notes from What I’ve Been Reading
As you know, it’s Inventing Ourselves Out of Jobs? America’s Debate over Technological Unemployment, 1929-1981., by Amy Sue Bix. It came out in 2000. I ordered it after seeing it referred to in A Great Leap Forward, the book I just reviewed. One of my take-aways is that in many industries the productivity improvements were .. MORE
Economics of Health Care
Nyman’s Non Sequitur on Health Insurance
Co-blogger Arnold Kling posted last week on health economist John Nyman’s 2004 article, “Is ‘Moral Hazard’ Inefficient? The Policy Implications of a New Theory,” Health Affairs, 23, No. 5: 194-199. I won’t repeat Nyman’s argument, which is brief. Instead, I want to point out a non sequitur. Nyman argues that many health economists have overstated .. MORE
Economic Growth
Trade, Mechanization, and Displacement
James C. Cooper writes, Between 1999 and 2009, these large global corporations pared 2.9 million workers from their U.S. payrolls while adding 2.4 million jobs at their foreign affiliates. That’s a reversal from the previous decade, when they boosted payrolls across the board, including increases of 4.4 million in the U.S. and 2.7 million overseas. .. MORE
Monetary Policy
The Fed: A Cost-Benefit Reckoning
Steve Miller and I have a question on the latest Kauffman econ bloggers’ survey. Namely: Taking into account its entire history, do you think the Federal Reserve has done more harm than good? Survey says: All things considered, this is an amazingly anti-Fed result. Kauffman participants span a wide range of political views, and status .. MORE
Macroeconomics
Cyclical vs. Technological Unemployment
Tyler Cowen writes about the hospitality sector of the economy, In terms of absolute levels, business is above where it was before the crisis. At first glance, that should seem enough to support the nominal wage levels of 2007. You also can see that the initial downward dip really doesn’t last for long (two months?) .. MORE
Family Economics
One More Reason to Thank Your Mom
Two questions occur to me this Mother’s Day: 1. How many readers are here today because your dad pressured your mom to have you? 2. How many readers are here today because your mom pressured your dad to have you? It’s hard to verify, but I bet that the answer to question #2 is a .. MORE
Economic History
Happy Mothers’ Day
One thing I hadn’t known is the anti-war, pro-peace aspect of Mothers’ Day. An early proponent of Mothers’ Day was Julia Ward Howe, who wrote the (pro-war) lyrics to the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Maybe she had second thoughts. Here’s a passage from her 1870 First Mother’s Day Proclamation: Say firmly: We will not .. MORE
Income Distribution
Anecdotes of an Informal Economy
Victor Davis Hanson writes, There is a vast and completely unreported cash economy in Central California. Tile-setters, carpenters, landscapers, tree-cutters, general handymen, cooks, housekeepers, and personal attendants are all both finding work and being paid in cash. Peddlers (no income or sales taxes) are on nearly every major rural intersection. You can buy everything from .. MORE
Uncategorized
Predict the More Predictive Test
IQ scores predict a wide range of life outcomes and respond to incentives. But almost all of the evidence that IQ predicts life outcomes comes from IQ tests that don’t use incentives. Which raises a big question: Would incentivized IQ tests be better or worse predictors of life outcomes than standard IQ tests? I see .. MORE