EconLog Archive
Energy, Environment, Resources
Nuclear Power Regulation
Randall Parker recently sent an email to a few economics bloggers about nuclear power plant regulation. In particular, he asked whether we think that the Price-Anderson Act, which limits the liability of nuclear power plants for accidents, represents an excess subsidy for power plants. I responded that I thought that the question was whether power .. MORE
Energy, Environment, Resources
A Dagger in the Heart of America
As late as 1999, it was our single largest foreign supplier of oil. But then a hostile regime took over, struck up close friendships with our bitter enemies, and started strangling our economy. By 2003, it had cut its exports by 22%. Clearly, we can no longer “leave well enough alone” in this geopolitical hotspot. .. MORE
Economics of Health Care
Health Insurance Puzzle
In my latest essay, I write, Ask an economist what is the best type of health insurance, and he or she is likely to respond “catastrophic coverage.” …In practice, we observe very little catastrophic coverage. Instead, the most widespread form of health care coverage is what I would call insulation, because consumers are insulated from .. MORE
Economics of Health Care
Health Care and Real Wages
Terry Lierman, the Chairman of the Maryland Democratic Party, forwarded me a link to an article in the Los Angeles Times about declining real wages. With benefits factored in, workers’ total compensation did outpace inflation in 2004, even if they didn’t see it in their paychecks. But employers also are requiring workers to pay a .. MORE
Politics and Economics
Voters As Mad Scientists
Voters aren’t selfish. That’s an important question where the political scientists are right and the economists are wrong. But I part company with the political scientists when they draw implications about how well democracy works. After they shoot down the Self-Interested Voter Hypothesis (SIVH), lots of political scientists can’t resist the following leap: Economists argue .. MORE
Economics of Education
More on the Reformation
Steven Roy Goodman writes, Colleges have long been hotbeds of political agitation, of course. But where it was once students who did the acting out, as they spread their intellectual and philosophical wings, now the professors and administrators are more likely to be playing politics — and more and more Americans with college-age kids are .. MORE
Politics and Economics
A Little Evidence I’m Wrong About Voter Motivation
I disbelieve what I call the Self-Interested Voter Hypothesis (SIVH for short). Political scientists like David Sears have amassed a mountain of empirical evidence against the SIVH, and the evidence on the other side (mostly economists, I’m afraid) is awfully weak. When I say that, I don’t mean that that the SIVH occasionally fails to .. MORE
Economic History
The Blogging Meme
The term “blog” was coined in 1999, and it now gets 105,000,000 google hits. Compare that to “democracy,” which only gets 43,800,000. Wikipedia provides a fascinating and thorough discussion.
Economics of Education
Academic Self-selection
Andrew Samwick writes, An elite university is like a kibbutz hooked up to an ATM. It is the closest thing we may ever find to a socialist enterprise that endures. The key element of the kibbutz–that the workers collectively decide on the activities of the entity–is hardwired into the university via faculty governance. (The departure .. MORE
Economics of Health Care
Health Insurance Administrative Costs
In this essay, I suggest how health insurance administrative costs could be reduced. A management consultant would recommend eliminating unnecessary interfaces. For example, you could eliminate state regulators and employers from the insurance process. Having 51 different sets of state health regulations means that it is impossible for health insurers to offer the same plans .. MORE
Energy, Environment, Resources
Gas Price Conspiracy?
The Cincinnati Enquirer writes, How can prices climb so much, seemingly overnight, when the gasoline in the tank beneath the station was bought by the retailer a day or two before and was probably refined from crude oil weeks or even months ago? James Brock, professor of economics at Miami University, blames a smaller pool .. MORE
Information Goods, Intellectual Property
Normality Signaling: A Test Case
My student Howard Wu passed along an interesting anecdote on signaling that you’re normal. True story: In my company once we received a resume sent along with a dress shoe. And the cover letter says: “now that I have a foot already in the door, can I have the interview?” .. this guy sure spends .. MORE
Regulation and Subsidies
Blue Laws
The Washington Post reports, Maryland lawmakers yesterday approved legislation that would effectively require Wal-Mart to boost spending on health care… Lawmakers said they did not set out to single out Wal-Mart when they drafted a bill requiring organizations with more than 10,000 employees to spend at least 8 percent of their payroll on health benefits .. MORE
Energy, Environment, Resources
The Energy Outlook
I presume that Alan Greenspan is a relatively well-informed observer. Clearly, limited substitution possibilities across fuels have resulted in persistent cost differentials, but those very differentials inspire the technologies that, over time, reduce such limitations. A clear example is gas-to-liquids (GTL) technology, which converts natural gas to high-quality naphtha and to diesel fuel. Given the .. MORE
Regulation and Subsidies
FDA: Public, Economists, and Specialists
I’ve come across two interesting surveys on the Food and Drug Administration. The first is the latest gem by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Among other topics, it has the dirt on public opinion about regulation of drugs. Does the public favor more, less, or the same amount of regulation of the following? Area More Regulation .. MORE
Social Security
Social Security
In this essay, I write Imagine that Social Security had been structured to phase out, so that only those workers now over the age of 30 are required to be in the system. Under this assumed scenario, workers under age 30 would only have Social Security if they chose to participate voluntarily or if they .. MORE
Politics and Economics
Best… Compliment… Ever
If you’re thinking of becoming an academic, be warned: You aren’t going to get a lot of positive reinforcement. Most of the time you will simply be ignored. Almost all of the remaining feedback is negative. (Stop by my office, I’ll show you my drawer full of rejections). Given all this, I’m frankly touched by .. MORE
Labor Market
The Joy of Market-Clearing Wages
When people compare the U.S. and Europe, they often conclude that the U.S. is richer and more economically efficient, but that Europe is happier because they don’t measure everything in dollars and cents (or even Marks and Pfennings). One of the prime examples people often point to: America’s less regulated, more flexible labor markets versus .. MORE
Growth: Consequences
The Anti-Malthusian
Ray Kurzweil is always fascinating. We’ll ultimately disconnect the sensual and social pleasures of eating from the biochemical task of keeping an optimum set of nutrients in our bloodstream. That sounds like a very concise statement of the goal for food research. For Discussion. Would we become food addicts in such a scenario, or would .. MORE
Energy, Environment, Resources
More Gas for Washington
The Washington Post reports, A who’s who of right-leaning military hawks — including former CIA director R. James Woolsey and Iraq war advocate Frank J. Gaffney Jr. — has joined with environmental advocates such as the Natural Resources Defense Council to lobby Congress to spend $12 billion to cut oil use in half by 2025. .. MORE
Behavioral Economics
“Faith” Means Not Wanting to Believe What is True
You may have heard the odd factoid that faith in government drastically increased immediately after 9/11. Impossible, you say? Surely when a great tragedy happens, the organization charged to prevent it will lose credibility, not gain it? The factoid checks out; there’s an excellent write-up by Gary Langer in Public Perspective. The facts: There is .. MORE