EconTech

The Puzzling Consensus in Favor of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act
The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, which bans certain types of genetic discrimination by employers and insurers, passed the House by a vote of 414 to one, and the Senate by a vote of 95 to zero. That means it’s a good idea, right? Wrong.
Suppose an [...]

Appeals Court Rules U.S. Bills Discriminate Against Blind
By DAVID STOUT
WASHINGTON — In a decision that could drastically change the appearance of American money, a federal appeals court panel ruled on Tuesday that the United States discriminates against the blind because the country’s paper currency is the same size regardless of a bill’s value.
The 2-to-1 [...]

Eminent Domain and Civil Rights

“[t]he burden of eminent domain has and will continue to fall disproportionately upon racial and ethnic minorities, the elderly, and economically disadvantaged.” Unfettered eminent domain authority, the NAACP concluded, is a “license for government to coerce individuals on behalf of society’s strongest interests.”
That is the NAACP quoted in [...]

Not enough discrimination?
Aleks pointed me to this article by Stan Liebowitz on the recent financial crisis:

At the crisis’ core are loans that were made with virtually nonexistent underwriting standards - no verification of income or assets; little consideration of the applicant’s ability to make payments; no down payment. Most people instinctively understand that such loans [...]

From the nerdy(-ier?) Freakonomicist (otherwise I probably would’ve never written about this, and sorry for the length):
Think Twice Before You Wear Your “Free Mumia” T-shirt

By Steven D. Levitt

I was sitting in the student union at the University of Chicago last week when a student came by putting “Free Mumia” leaflets on the tables.
I have never [...]

Not a whole lot of new information here, just kind of put together. Also, someone else (Bartels, Krugman has done it before) is pointing out the very obvious point that Republicans win due to the Dixiecrat conversion to Republicans. Yes, that means race is still driving national politics at the margin, by middle and upper [...]

His writing very rarely holds much sway for me. His values have him point out things that sometimes do not get mentioned by other economists who blog on immigration. Very often, he is right, or at least has strong evidence that he is right, on the questions of fact. But I just don’t care. I [...]

The article itself seems interesting. Jason’s summary is below. I want to make a point on the meta-issue here. This type of study is not possible without proper documentation and recording in a compatible electronic format. The cost of collecting the non-electronic data is simply too high. I have said before that EMR will allow [...]

I bring up social welfare functions relatively often. There is not a whole lot written about them these days; they have serious theoretical issues; they have more serious practical issues; and yet, in my mind, it is one of the most important topics in policy oriented economics. Many have accepted the proposition that the social [...]

I’m going to have to disagree with Language Log on this one.
The difference between the diamond traders and application of Shari’a are likely to be significant. For those under the age of 18, who decides whether their ‘consent’ to Shari’a law is consensual; something unlikely to be of issue among the diamond traders. By [...]

An interesting note from Stephen, but I have a problem with the use of ‘acceptable.’ It implies a normative evaluation. I think the notes here should be more positive in nature. ‘AcceptED’ captures the notion of being a de facto state without the normative nod that that state is a good thing. Yes, this goes [...]

That is, we handle it rather terribly. Perhaps worm-like would be better. Just because Obama is running, and doing well, does not mean race is no longer an issue (yes, I’ve heard this said multiple times). IATs still reveal 70-90% bias rates among Caucasian Americans. More uplifting news from science blogs:
Americans still linking blacks to [...]

The Alesina et.al post has been sitting in my browser for quite some time. It just keeps getting pushed back over other stuff. I wanted to post on it in connection with affirmative action. But this seems just as good of a time to post it.
If something like this is to be done, the wage [...]

This paper is probably worth a read, the blog post definitely is. However, the bonds industry doesn’t sound exactly like a prediction market to me, at least not in the sense that it is usually discussed. If you just label any market from which you can deduce some probability, then I guess that qualifies. But [...]

For anyone who has thought about climate change, or any other major, long term policy, remotely seriously, the choice of a discount rate becomes a critical value in your model rather quickly. The problem is, of course, that it is a value that can substantially alter the outcomes of an analysis, but the choice of [...]