Paul W.

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Doing economics at Goldman Sachs

Paul W. posted an article on - Dec 10, 2009, 7:12 pm
In this audio from VoxEU.org, Jim O’Neill, head of global economic research at Goldman Sachs, talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about the crisis and its impact on the emerging giants of the world economy,...
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How the resource curse works its anti-magic

Paul W. posted an article on - Dec 10, 2009, 4:55 pm
Roughly the resource curse says that countries and regions with an abundance of natural resources, specifically point-source non-renewable resources like minerals and fuels, tend to have less economic...
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Do we really need a central bank?

Paul W. posted an article on - Dec 10, 2009, 4:16 pm
This question is asked by Steve Horwitz. On December 2, 2009, Horwitz gave the following speech at The Future of Freedom Foundation’s “Economic Liberty Lecture Series.” Economic Liberty Lecture...
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Prices responding to supply and demand

Paul W. posted an article on - Dec 10, 2009, 4:09 pm
Strange but true. Thanks to Homepaddock we learn thatNews release – South Island wool price movements reflect levels of supply NZ Wool Services International Ltd reports prices at today’s South I...
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Nobel prize lecture by Elinor Ostrom

Paul W. posted an article on - Dec 9, 2009, 7:48 pm
This 28 minute video is of the Nobel prize lecture on "Beyond Markets and States: Polycentric Governance of Complex Economic Systems" given by Elinor Ostrom who is the co-winner of the 2009 Sveriges R...
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Nobel prize lecture by Oliver Williamson

Paul W. posted an article on - Dec 9, 2009, 7:24 pm
This 38 minute video is of the Nobel prize lecture on "Transaction Cost Economics: The Natural Progression" given by Oliver Williamson who is the co-winner of the 2009 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Econo...
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Chinese vs. Russian reforms

Paul W. posted an article on - Dec 9, 2009, 6:36 pm
An article in Policy Review by Paul R. Gregory and Kate Zhou on How China Won and Russia Lost. The article looks at two dissimilar paths towards economic reform. What worked and why? Take agricultura...
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How did liberating electricity markets in Texas work out?

Paul W. posted an article on - Dec 9, 2009, 6:21 pm
There is a new book out that asks this question. Electricity Restructuring: The Texas Story, edited By L. Lynne Kiesling and Andrew N. Kleit.In the early 1990s, the U.S. electricity industry was plag...
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The folly of economic forecasts

Paul W. posted an article on - Dec 9, 2009, 6:06 pm
In this podcast at Plant Money Russ Robert, George Mason University economist and host of EconTalk, says he has come to believe it's impossible to predict future economic conditions because good ...
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The Coase theorem at work?

Paul W. posted an article on - Dec 7, 2009, 10:46 pm
In the US, Illinois instituted a smoking ban in bars and restaurants in January 2008. What happened? This comes from Lynne Kiesling at the Knowledge Problem blog.The Crowbar, on the southeast side of ...
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Interesting blog bits

Paul W. posted an article on - Dec 7, 2009, 10:16 pm
MacDoctor on Laid to Rest. It is time to lay the myth that cellphone use causes cancer to rest.Brad Taylor says Well Done, Danish Sex Workers.Mark J. Perry says We Live Longer Than Ever, Food's N...
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Intergenerational accounting

Paul W. posted an article on - Dec 7, 2009, 10:08 pm
(HT: Peter Boettke at The Austrian Economists)
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A couple of interesting seminars

Paul W. posted an article on - Dec 7, 2009, 9:56 pm
Over the next two weeks the Econ Department is running two interesting looking seminars:December 11 (Friday in Room 534 (Commerce Building) beginning at 3:10pm) An Equilibrium Model of the New Zealan...
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Alfred Marshall and hold-up

Paul W. posted an article on - Dec 7, 2009, 8:37 pm
In their paper "Reflections on the Theory of the Firm", Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 143 (1987), 110- 136, Armen Alchian and Susan Woodward use the following example of hold-up,...
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EconTalk this week

Paul W. posted an article on - Dec 7, 2009, 7:24 pm
Megan McArdle, who writes the blog Asymmetrical Information at The Atlantic, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about debt and the challenge of self-restraint. She discusses her recent Atlantic art...
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Making migration work after the crisis

Paul W. posted an article on - Dec 6, 2009, 9:47 pm
In this audio from VoxEU.org Demetrios Papademetriou, president and co-founder of the Migration Policy Institute in Washington DC, talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about the key elements of wise migration ...
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Pigou on state action

Paul W. posted an article on - Dec 6, 2009, 7:43 pm
This is from an article by Arthur Cecil Pigou in a 1954 issue of the journal Diogenes. (It was also reprinted in the third edition of the fantastic collection, Great Political Thinkers: Plato to the P...
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Brash to Garth George (updated)

Paul W. posted an article on - Dec 6, 2009, 7:43 pm
In the New Zealand Herald Garth George attacked the report of the 2025 Taskforce. Don Brash has now replied to the George attackGarth George was way off beam in his attack on the first report of the 2...
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Sumner on Selgin

Paul W. posted an article on - Dec 3, 2009, 8:16 pm
George Selgin's monograph Less than Zero, is one of the most well known defences of the productivity norm and its implied price deflation in the face of increased productivity. Under a productivi...
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Just for fun: theory of the firm 10

Paul W. posted an article on - Dec 3, 2009, 7:09 pm
In an provocative and interesting paper written for the Markets, Firms and Property Rights: A Celebration of the Research of Ronald Coase conference, Harold Demsetz articulates a somewhat non-standard...
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Blame Canada

Paul W. posted an article on - Dec 2, 2009, 10:09 pm
Eric Crampton says we should Blame Canada. I'm all for this, South Park - Blame Canada - Click here for more blooper videos But in Eric's case its not the affect of Canada on kids that's t...
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What happened to the term monetarism?

Paul W. posted an article on - Dec 2, 2009, 6:59 pm
This is the question asked by Matt Nolan over at the TVHE blog. Matt writes For example, the term monetarist. In a discussion with my sister and on this post from the DimPost the term “monetarist...
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Celebrating the work of Ronald Coase.

Paul W. posted an article on - Dec 1, 2009, 8:08 pm
This weekend in Chicago, they are celebrating the work of my favourite economist, Ronald Coase.Markets, Firms and Property Rights A Celebration of the Research of Ronald Coase Friday, December 4 to S...
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Klein on Cassidy

Paul W. posted an article on - Dec 1, 2009, 6:39 pm
I have pointed out before that John Cassidy is arguing for the relevance of the ideas of Arthur Cecil Pigou to the recent financial crisis. Peter Klein at the Organizations and Markets blog takes issu...
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Tabarrok on Irving Fisher

Paul W. posted an article on - Dec 1, 2009, 9:30 am
Earlier I noted that John Cassidy was arguing for the relevance of the ideas of Arthur Cecil Pigou to the recent financial crisis. Now Alex Tabarrok, over at Marginal Revolution, is arguing for anothe...
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Trust, law and social norms: fundamentals of economic progress

Paul W. posted an article on - Nov 30, 2009, 7:02 pm
In this audio from VoxEU.org Sir Partha Dasgupta of the University of Cambridge talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about why some countries are rich and others are poor. He argues that trust is the fundament...
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Interesting blog bits

Paul W. posted an article on - Nov 30, 2009, 6:46 pm
Wenli Li and Michelle J. White on Bankruptcy, mortgage default, and foreclosure. Did US bankruptcy laws exacerbate the housing crisis? This column says that a 2005 reform that made declaring personal ...
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North on Williamson and Ostrom

Paul W. posted an article on - Nov 30, 2009, 5:34 pm
In this short video Douglass North discusses the work of the 2009 Nobel Prize winners in economics, Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson.
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The Regulatory Responsibility Act

Paul W. posted an article on - Nov 26, 2009, 7:09 pm
Just last month the report of the Regulatory Responsibility Taskforce was released. Not that many people seem to have noticed. The taskforce was headed by former secretary of the Treasury Graham Scott...
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The new paternalism

Paul W. posted an article on - Nov 26, 2009, 6:43 pm
There is an interesting series of postings on the "New Paternalism on the Slippery Slopes" by Glen Whitman at the ThinkMarkets blog.New Paternalism on the Slippery Slopes, Part 1.New Paternalism on th...
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I will be a binge drinker after a bottle of this stuff .....

Paul W. posted an article on - Nov 26, 2009, 6:34 pm
Brad Taylor tells us about a new 32% alcohol beer from the Scottish brewing company BrewDog. Brad writes, BrewDog, the Scottish brewing company behind the 18.2% ABV Tokyo* and the low alcohol Nanny ...
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Introduction to Hayek's thought

Paul W. posted an article on - Nov 25, 2009, 9:08 pm
Don Boudreaux points us to this excellent introduction to F. A. Hayek’s thought. Hayek’s 1973 Wincott Lecture, "Economic Freedom and Representative Government", is now available on-line via the I...
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The waterbed effect

Paul W. posted an article on - Nov 25, 2009, 8:01 pm
A question worth asking with regard to the mobile phone market in New Zealand is, Will the recent recommendation to regulate New Zealand mobile termination rates reduce the costs of mobile calling, as...
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Government outsourcing: the private sector can be good for you

Paul W. posted an article on - Nov 24, 2009, 1:34 pm
At VoxEU.org Emmanuelle Auriol and Pierre M.Picard have a new column, Government outsourcing: Public contracting with private monopoly. They open the column by saying, Many countries, including Austra...
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I am a binge drinker

Paul W. posted an article on - Nov 23, 2009, 8:05 pm
At Offsetting Behaviour Eric Crampton reports According to Barry Jackson (Radio NZ interview), if you've consumed 5 standard drinks in one day anytime in the last month (4 for women), you're...
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EconTalk this week

Paul W. posted an article on - Nov 23, 2009, 4:22 pm
Carmen Reinhart of the University of Maryland talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the ideas in her book This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly (co-authored with Kenneth Rog...
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Fiscal policy research

Paul W. posted an article on - Nov 23, 2009, 12:30 pm
New research on fiscal policy by Alberto Alesina and Silvia Ardagna looks at Large changes in fiscal policy: taxes versus spending. The abstract tells us, We examine the evidence on episodes of larg...
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Religious identity and economic behaviour

Paul W. posted an article on - Nov 22, 2009, 9:22 pm
A new study on Religious Identity and Economic Behavior by Daniel J. Benjamin, James J. Choi and Geoffrey Fisher finds that Protestants were more likely than Jews or Catholics to contribute money to a...
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Supply and demand or what?

Paul W. posted an article on - Nov 18, 2009, 3:09 pm
This report from Reuters is of comments about oil prices made by energy consultant Daniel Yergin recently in Singapore: "Oil prices today do not reflect the world's supply and demand fundamental...
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Interesting blog bits

Paul W. posted an article on - Nov 18, 2009, 1:39 pm
Carpe Diem on More Selective Concern on Sex Imbalances.David Friedman on The Ambiguity of "Utility". Do economists and the philosophers think of utility in the same way?Bryan Caplan on The Effect of C...
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Chris Berry on Adam Smith

Paul W. posted an article on - Nov 18, 2009, 12:15 pm
Chris Berry, Professor of Political Theory at University of Glasgow is a leading expert on the life and work of one of the University of Glasgow's most famous academics, Adam Smith. In this 10 mi...
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The effect of immigration on productivity

Paul W. posted an article on - Nov 17, 2009, 11:21 pm
A new NBER Working Paper, No. 15507, by Giovanni Peri looks at The Effect of Immigration on Productivity: Evidence from US States. The abstract reads,Using the large variation in the inflow of immigra...
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Time for U.S. to declare bankruptcy?

Paul W. posted an article on - Nov 17, 2009, 9:42 pm
Scott Beaulier and Peter L. Boettke ask this question in this piece in the East Valley Tribune. Drawing on the discussion of the public debt by a guy called Adam Smith, Beaulier and Boettke write,Rath...
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EconTalk this week

Paul W. posted an article on - Nov 17, 2009, 8:00 pm
Richard Posner, federal judge and prolific author, discusses the financial crisis with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Posner (despite the title of his recent book on the crisis, A Failure of Capitalism) ...
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Nonsense upon stilts

Paul W. posted an article on - Nov 15, 2009, 9:43 pm
At Offsetting Behaviour Eric Crampton posts an article he wrote for NORML on the New Zealand Drug Harm Index. See here. Eric opens by saying,If the New Zealand Drug Harm Index is nonsense, then Detect...
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Avoiding a new inflationary cycle

Paul W. posted an article on - Nov 15, 2009, 9:31 pm
In this audio from VoxEU.org, Domingo Cavallo, former minister of economy and minister of foreign affairs in Argentina, talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about the dangers of a future resurgence in world in...
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Was the Iraq war worth it?

Paul W. posted an article on - Nov 15, 2009, 9:10 pm
This question is asked by Jeffrey Miron at the Libertarianism, from A to Z blog. His conclusion:My forecast for Iraq's future: renewed violence between Sunni and Shiite as the U.S. funding that ha...
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Self-interest is not selfishness

Paul W. posted an article on - Nov 15, 2009, 9:08 pm
This point is made over at the Adam Smith's Lost Legacy blog by Gavin Kennedy with regard to the writings of Adam Smith.‘Self-interest’ and ‘self-love’ in 18th-century discourse did not me...
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Paul Milgrom on market design

Paul W. posted an article on - Nov 12, 2009, 2:41 pm
This video is of Paul Milgrom's 2009 Nemmer's Prize Lecture on "The Promise and Problems of Market Design". The abstract of Milgrom's talk is: "Market design has become an exciting area o...
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Incentives matter: football helmet file

Paul W. posted an article on - Nov 11, 2009, 10:58 pm
This comes from a story in the Wall Street Journal about head injuries in football in the US. Are helmets part of the answer to head injuries or part of the cause? The incentives on how you play the ...
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