Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Feb 6, 2012, 9:09 am
From Groping towards Bethlehem we learn that MED in its Briefing to the Incoming Minister pointed out that the high exchange rate means we are all a little bit richer? Don’t be silly. ‘Cause, see, it’s all about the exports. The opening sentence: The Government’s aim of building ...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Feb 6, 2012, 8:52 am
William Black of the University of Missouri-Kansas City and author of The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about financial fraud, starting with the Savings and Loan debacle up through the current financial crisis. Black explains how bank executives can use ...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Feb 5, 2012, 9:23 pm
At VoxEU.org Andrei Shleifer tells us about the Seven things I learned about transition from communism. These seven things being: First, in all countries in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, economic activity shrunk at the beginning of transition, in some very sharply. In many count...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Feb 5, 2012, 8:20 pm
Thanks to an email from Jorge Morales Meoqui I have been alerted to his recent paper in the journal History of Political Economy on "Comparative Advantage and the Labor Theory of Value". The abstract reads, With the famous numerical example of chapter 7 of the Principles (1817) David Ricardo i...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Feb 3, 2012, 9:22 pm
David Ricardo is probably most famous because of his introduction of the idea of comparative advantage into economics. Today comparative advantage is the standard reason given as to why countries gain from trade. But is Ricardo the author of the famous pages in his "Principles of Political Economy...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Feb 2, 2012, 7:21 am
Eugene Fama of the University of Chicago talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the evolution of finance, the efficient market hypothesis, the current crisis, the economics of stimulus, and the role of empirical work in finance and economics.
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Jan 30, 2012, 10:02 am
It looks like the answer is yes. There is a new NBER working paper out on Aiding Conflict: The Impact of U.S. Food Aid on Civil War by Nathan Nunn and Nancy Qian. The abstract reads: This paper examines the effect of U.S. food aid on conflict in recipient countries. To establish a causa...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Jan 28, 2012, 12:27 am
Palgrave-Macmillan has a book series on "Great thinkers in economics". Titles in the series include Adam Smith, Alfred Marshall, Joseph A. Schumpeter and John Maynard Keynes, about which I would think no one could complain. But the series also includes the likes of John Kenneth Galbraith, Mich...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Jan 26, 2012, 12:52 am
The AFA presidential address by Raghuram Rajan is now out as an NBER working paper. The abstract reads: The nature of the firm and its financing are closely interlinked. To produce significant net present value, an entrepreneur has to transform her enterprise into one that is differentiated fr...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Jan 25, 2012, 6:53 pm
With issues around Megaupload being in the news, this summary, by Linda Gorman, of an NBER working paper - "Copyright Protection, Technological Change, and the Quality of New Products: Evidence from Recorded Music Since Napster" - from the latest NBER Digest makes the point that "The quality of new ...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Jan 24, 2012, 1:05 pm
I've been reading parts of Roger Backhouse's book "The Ordinary Business of Life: A history of economics from the ancient world to the twenty-first century". From what I've read thus far the book is, by and large, a good read for the general reader with an interest in the history of economic thought...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Jan 23, 2012, 9:16 am
In his classic book "A History of Economic Analysis" Joseph Schumpeter argued that there was one general equilibrium system and Walras had given it to us. As far as pure theory is concerned, Walras is in my opinion the greatest of all economists. His system of economic equilibrium look like boats be...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Jan 23, 2012, 9:10 am
David Rose of the University of Missouri, St. Louis and the author of The Moral Foundation of Economic Behavior talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the book and the role morality plays in prosperity. Rose argues that morality plays a crucial role in prosperity and economic development. Knowi...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Jan 18, 2012, 11:20 pm
The standard neoclassical (Arrow-Debreu) approach to general equilibrium has been criticised by many economists, for many reasons. Mark Blaug, for example, has written, We may conclude that GE theory as such is a cul-de-sac: it as has no empirical content and never will have empirical content. Moreo...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Jan 16, 2012, 7:36 am
Nassim Taleb, author of Fooled By Randomness and The Black Swan, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about antifragility, the concept behind Taleb's next book, a work in progress. Taleb talks about how we can cope with our ignorance and uncertainty in a complex world. Topics covered include health...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Jan 15, 2012, 8:20 am
Things you think about over a sunny weekend. One way to think about the different types of contracts modelled in contract theory is to divide contract theory into three groups: complete contacts, comprehensive contracts and incomplete contracts. Complete contracts are those which are written i...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Jan 15, 2012, 8:17 am
Professor Pete Boettke of George Mason University was recently interviewed by "The Browser" on Austrian Economics. A take home message: Analytically, the biggest difference between the Austrians and their mainstream brethren is a focus on processes of adjustment and changing conditions, ...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Jan 9, 2012, 7:55 pm
Dean Baker of the Center for Economic Policy and Research talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the financial crisis. Baker sees the crisis as part of a broader set of phenomena--rising inequality and declining unionization. Baker is highly critical on both economic and political grounds of th...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Jan 5, 2012, 9:23 pm
Given that the current government wants to partially privatise several SOEs the question to ask is, What effect will this have on firm performance? Some insight into this question is offered by a recent paper in the Scottish Journal of Political Economy (Volume 59, Issue 1, pages 1–27, February 20...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Jan 5, 2012, 1:11 am
Scott Sumner of Bentley University and the blog The Money Illusion talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the state of monetary policy, the actions of the Federal Reserve over the past two years and the state of the economy. Sumner argues that monetary policy has been too tight and helped creat...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Dec 29, 2011, 8:22 pm
Coase was born at 3:25 p.m. on December 29th, 1910 in a house in Willesden, a suburb of London so he now a young and sprightly 101! Coase received the 1991 Sveriges Riksbank (Bank of Sweden) Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel “for his discovery and clarification of t...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Dec 27, 2011, 9:58 pm
Thanks to Tim Worstall for this wonderful example of a bad marketing promotion and the rational response to it. To introduce you to a little bit of English English. To “do a Hoover” is not exactly everyday language, even here, but it will be understood by those discussing retail promotions. It m...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Dec 27, 2011, 3:25 pm
Alex Tabarrok of George Mason University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about his new book, Launching the Innovation Renaissance. Tabarrok argues that innovation in the United States is being held back by patent law, the legal system, and immigration policies. He then suggests how these might...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Dec 21, 2011, 9:36 pm
From Mark Perry at the Carpe Diem blog: According to new data just released by the United Nations, China surpassed the United States in 2010 to become the world's No. 1 manufacturing nation, ending America's dominance as the world's largest manufacturer since the late 1800s (see chart above of...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Nov 1, 2011, 1:35 am
'Evidence-based policy’ is one of the big things in policy circles these days. One important issue for the research community to think about is ways of increasing the efficiency of the policy-research. One starting point is to revisit the assumption that is prevalent throughout the policy-researc...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Nov 1, 2011, 12:58 am
Over at the, normally reliable, TVHE blog rauparaha writes, Phil Goff: no businessperson in New Zealand that would say when you are in difficulty the best thing you could do is sell off your best-performing assets. At least both major parties now agree that that the election is all...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Oct 30, 2011, 11:41 pm
... of Roger Kerr's death came as a shock to me ... with Roger a major influence on my blogging. He exposed me ... New Zealand, each of which Roger orchestrated with his customary enthusiasm ... further from the truth with Roger. The most extraordinary feature about ... something else in add...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Oct 30, 2011, 7:21 pm
At the ThinkMarkets blog Jerry O’Driscoll writes about the relationship between Austrian economics Chicago and UCLA. It was obvious to me that Mises had influenced Alchian. Also Hayek, as is made clear in a video of Alchian interviewing Hayek. Hayek’s classic essays on prices and inf...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Oct 30, 2011, 7:15 pm
Rugby is not the only sport in the news right now. In the US the NBA lockout is big news. Here is an interview with University of Chicago professor of economics Kevin Murphy about the lockout. Here's an interesting point about the relationship between salaries and the number of wins in a season. &#...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Oct 28, 2011, 4:31 am
Law professor Richard Epstein explaining why inequality is a spur for innovation in our economy. Watch Does U.S. Economic Inequality Have a Good Side? on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Oct 27, 2011, 3:02 am
Economist Ed Dolan has reviewed Gernot Wagner’s book But Will the Planet Notice? Given that Martin Weitzman is coming in a couple of weeks to give the 7th Annual Condliffe Memorial Lecture I thought this piece in the review interesting: He is especially devastating in his critique of the Endangere...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Oct 27, 2011, 2:11 am
Economist Edward Stringham discusses the economics and historical record on private provision of police services.
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Oct 27, 2011, 1:54 am
In this audio from VoxEU.org Professor Anne Krueger of Johns Hopkins University talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about the issues around globalisation and the crisis covered in her forthcoming book, ‘Struggling with Success: Challenges facing the International Economy’. She discusses the eurozone cri...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Oct 27, 2011, 1:46 am
At Fair Play and Forward Passes Sam Richardson writes, So, should we host the tournament again? We need to be objective when it comes to a future tournament, and consider the implications of hosting. Given that much of the infrastructure is in place, I'm sure we'd like to think that in maybe 1...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Oct 27, 2011, 1:10 am
Thanks to Homepaddock for this bit of information. Milk production in Austria, Cyprus, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands has been higher than expected. That ought to be cause for celebration in a world we keep being told is short on food and where developing countri...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Oct 27, 2011, 12:44 am
‘Why is the economics of climate change so difficult and controversial?  The lecture will be delivered by Martin Weitzman, Professor in Economics at Harvard University. Date: Thursday 17th November 4.30pm – 5.30pm. Refreshments to follow Venue: Law 108, Ground floor, Law B...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Oct 25, 2011, 9:37 pm
I have commented on work by Sam Richardson on the economic impact of the rugby world cup before: here, here and here. Richardson is now blogging at Fair Play and Forward Passes and is writing more on benefits of the world cup. Back in September Richardson noted, And while we are on the econom...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Oct 24, 2011, 9:10 am
The short answer seems to be yes, for Korea at least. Can a government credibly promise not to bailout firms whose failure would have major negative systemic consequences? Our analysis of Korea's 1997-99 crisis, suggests an answer: No. Despite a general "no bailout" policy during the crisis,...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Oct 24, 2011, 9:01 am
Valerie Ramey of the University of California, San Diego talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the effect of government spending on output and employment. Ramey's own work exploits the exogenous nature of wartime spending. She finds a multiplier between .8 and 1.2. (A multiplier of 1 means tha...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Oct 20, 2011, 4:23 am
At the Stumbling and Mumbling blog Chris Dillow writes on why economics is misunderstood by journalists. He says, with regard to a radio interview involving economist Patrick Minford,That interview with Minford highlights three (of many?) reasons for this: 1. Time pressure. Interviewees typically ha...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Oct 18, 2011, 10:04 am
At National Affairs Algis Valiunas has a piece on Business and the Literati. The business of America may be business, but the business of American literature in the past century has been largely to insist that the nation is, in pursuing business, wasting itself on unworthy objects. In the eye...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Oct 18, 2011, 9:40 am
As chief economic adviser to President Bush, Edward Lazear was at the heart of the US policy machine in October 2008. In this VoxEU.org audio Lazear talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about the Eurozone crisis and whether now might be Europe’s Lehman moment. They also discuss the growing significance of ...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Oct 18, 2011, 9:30 am
Eric Crampton points out that the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Agency, is looking for an economist. The position of Economist is a senior level role that reports to the General Manager, and is required to contribute to the development and implementation of plans originating from the Recover...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Oct 17, 2011, 9:42 pm
Thanks to Matt Nolan at the TVHE blog for this one: This story is a great example of how institutions can shape incentives, in order to change outcomes. The women of Barbacoas, Colombia have ended a three-month, 19-day “crossed legs” strike of sexual abstinence aimed at getting a roa...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Oct 17, 2011, 9:04 am
Nicholas Wapshott, author of Keynes Hayek: The Clash That Defined Modern Economics, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich A. Hayek--their ideas, their disagreements, their friendship and how the two men influenced economists and public policy during their life...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Oct 16, 2011, 12:44 am
In this case its real versus nominal exchange rates. Much has been written about China’s currency manipulation policies and why its bad policy. But most of the anti-Chinese rhetoric has been written as if its the nominal exchange rate that’s important. But what’s happening to the real rate? &#...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Oct 14, 2011, 3:50 am
A point Don Boudreaux makes in this article at U.S. News & World Report‘s “Debate Club”. We should add that it makes for wealthier New Zealanders as well. Boudreaux writes, The U.S. government should not respond to China's allegedly undervalued renminbi by raising taxes on Americans who ...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Oct 14, 2011, 2:22 am
It is interesting that students in many of the top M.B.A. programs in the U.S. vote for grade non-disclosure policies which have the effect of reducing the signal that a potential employer gets of a student's ability. Why? It seems strange that top students would vote to give employers less informat...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Oct 13, 2011, 3:21 am
A Brief History of Economic Dictionaries: An Essay in Bibliography by Daniele Besomi. The abstract reads: This chapter outlines a history of specialized dictionaries in economics and allied disciplines, presenting them grouped by their scope in chronological order. The first dictionaries quali...
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Paul W. posted an article on Anti-Dismal - Oct 13, 2011, 2:17 am
At the IEA blog Kristian Niemietz notes that in the U.K., at least, Poverty falls, because we are getting poorer. In poverty measurement, this is precisely what happens. We don’t have final data on the recession’s effect on poverty yet, because these only go until 2009 so far. But judging...
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