EconTech

More on Carbon Policy Equivalence
Please read Arnold Kling.
My sympathies in economics lie with the so-called “new institutionalists.” I think institutionalists are going to see more clearly than neoclassicals the rather big difference between a carbon tax and a whole new market institution for trade in government-created and government-rationed permits.
But let’s back up a little, [...]

I don’t have much to add to the debate on emissions control policy that seems to have flared up recently. Clearly, both have advantages and disadvantages that the other doesn’t. The major difference seems to be that, under uncertainty on the optimal level of emissions, that cap-and-trade produces potentially excessive costs if the cap is [...]

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 [...]

Gas tax hysterics

OK, this has gone overboard.
Hillary Clinton’s proposed gas tax holiday is not, in my view, a good idea. But the furor over what is, when all is said and done, a small and temporary policy proposal is entirely disproportionate. What’s going on?
Part of it, clearly, is the fact that many people in the [...]

Apparently, it doesn’t get funding:
Why Medicine Should Care Less About ‘Sick,’ More About ‘Normal’
If you had died 50 years ago, your body would have stood a pretty good chance of serving science. In the 1960s, autopsy rates at US hospitals exceeded 50 percent. Pathologists weren’t necessarily looking for what killed people — they were taking [...]

Slow in suburbia

There’s a new report out from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation on broadband. It confirms the fact that the United States is lagging in broadband adoption, both in overall penetration and in other aspects including speed and price. Part, but only part, of this may be due to bad policy — basically, [...]

I’ve long thought that licensed ‘purchased’ materials is an asinine business plan that some day some hero will come through and shatter. Much of our cultural history has been created through sharing and reshaping. Now that the technology has come along to do it, companies and governments are attempting to create technological and legal barriers [...]

Andrew Gelman had this to say on concepts versus skills. It was certainly a technique I used in tutoring students that was extremely successful. More so because the ‘tricks’ approach to math, and some other subjects, is a dismal approach to teaching someone how to think about math. A couple days of being shown how [...]

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 [...]

Well, Alex says a lot of what I said. Bartels isn’t so surprising given the previously existing PBC literature, even in other countries. However, the literature does have a number of mechanisms, more than just sticky prices if I remember correctly; if you are interested in scoping it out, read the previous posts for the [...]

Rodrik gives Bartels space to guest blog, and he produces an excellent Q&A formatted response to the questions and criticisms many had of the result we showed last week. Tyler has a few comments up on Bartels’ response:
Larry Bartels responds

Professor Rodrik has kindly invited me to respond to some of the questions and comments generated [...]

If you’ve been reading me, you know that there is a serious crisis on the horizon (or closer) regarding world grain supplies. PK reviews the trend a bit and points out that your inconvenience at your local mega-mart may very well mean starvation for others. He then reviews the factors of influence:

increased meat consumption in [...]

Well, I thought that since PK said he doesn’t buy the Bartels graphs because he doesn’t have a sound reason to believe they are true I would mention that. I am posting though, because people are looking very confused at them (comments and trackbacks). I cannot speak to Bartels’ book, but there is already a [...]

Paul Krugman (among others) has been saying that the growth in inequality in America is in large part due to policy differences in various administrations. Obviously and with good reason, Krugman believes that Republican administrations create policies and institutions that favor the rich over the poor while Democrats do a better job of equalizing the [...]

Well, food prices have been rising for some time, as I’m sure you have noticed at your local mega-mart. Unfortunately (the dismal in dismal science), these prices reflect the reality of world prices, and the world’s poor are feeling it much more than you. Even rice prices are going up, as global rice reserves are [...]