EconLog Archive
Economic Growth
Japan Needs Revolution?
Technology analyst Joi Ito offers this diagnosis of Japan’s long slump. Post-war Japan consolidated power in the ruling party. People were educated to be obedient. Harmony was maintained by co-opting or disabling people or organizations that could threaten the system. Diversity in the media, a strong judiciary, diversity in education and political diversity were stifled .. MORE
Public Choice Theory
Tax Reform Timidity
The New York Times’ Daniel Altman describes the state of the income tax code. Washington managed to hack through much of the underbrush of the tax code in an overhaul that President Ronald Reagan signed into law in 1986. But in the years after, lawmakers started adding dozens of provisions to the individual and corporate .. MORE
Energy, Environment, Resources
Synthetic Fuels Program
About a year ago, Paul Romer pointed out that In the next century we’re going to be moving back and forth, experimenting with where to draw the line between institutions of science and institutions of the market. In this context, there has been considerable criticism of President Bush’s proposal to spend $1.2 billion on hydrogen .. MORE
Revealed Preference
Income Vs. Happiness
A short article by Don Peck and Ross Douthat in The Atlantic Monthly summarizes some research on the relationship between income and happiness by Dutch sociologist Ruut Veenhoven. Peck and Douthat interpret the results as suggesting that Above about $20,000 per capita, increases in wealth yield at best minimal increases in happiness. They must mean .. MORE
Economic Growth
The Internet and Productivity
Yesterday, having been lured downtown by an opportunity to gaze into Virginia Postrel’s eyes, I stumbled on Nobel Laureate Michael Spence giving a talk on the Internet and productivity. Some major points were: 1. Before the Internet, computing was a stand-alone affair. This severely limited the economic benefits of computers. 2. With the advent of .. MORE
Growth: Consequences
Growth and Displacement
Glenn (Instapundit) Reynolds links to a pessimistic treatment of economic growth by Michael Rogers. In my little part of the world that sample has included advertising agency people, a television executive, two doctors, a lawyer, a retail stockbroker, a building contractor and several business and editorial folks in magazine publishing. None of them was predicting .. MORE
Price Controls
Rent Control’s Sad History
How has rent control worked in New York City? Exactly as textbooks would have predicted, according to this essay by William Tucker in the New York Post. During the 1920s, builders put up nearly 100,000 new apartment units a year. Today we’re lucky to get 5,000. He points out that rent control leads to a .. MORE
Economic Growth
Lurching toward Utopia?
Brad DeLong describes the 20th century as “slouching towards utopia.” He views prospects for the next 20 years as even brighter. Today’s ongoing revolutions in biotechnology-and-information technology see technological progress of at least 15% per year in industries that make up 13% of total production — a direct leading-sector boost to economic growth of 2% .. MORE
Supply-side Economics
The Case for Tax Cuts
For an antidote to the interventionist Atlantic Monthly, see this open letter signed by a number of conservative economists. As a rule, government cannot create wealth or expand the economy. Only the private sector can do that. Government can, however, hinder economic growth through excessive taxes, high marginal tax rates, over-regulation, or unnecessary spending. Accordingly, .. MORE
Cross-country Comparisons
U.S. Best–or Worst?
In the Atlantic Monthly’s “State of the Union” issue, Ted Halstead says that for the American economy it is the best of times and the worst of times. We boast more patent applications than the entire European Union; almost three times as many Nobel laureates as Britain, our closest competitor; and more business start-ups per .. MORE
Information Goods, Intellectual Property
The Economics of Web Logs
EconLog is a Web Log, or Blog. My view is that some of the value of blogs comes from the collective filtering that they provide. I sketch a sort of economic model, in which everyone lives on a circle, with information needs similar to people who are closest on the circle. I live in the .. MORE
Books: Reviews and Suggested Readings
The Case for Teaching Economics
When asked by edge.org’s John Brockman what he would do if he were science advisor to the President, Steven Pinker’s reply included: Observers from our best science writers to Jay Leno are frequently appalled by the innumeracy, factual ignorance, and scientific illiteracy of typical Americans. This has implications in countless areas of the public and .. MORE