Despite a 25 per cent devaluation of sterling, UK exports to Asia in the last three years have grown at a slower rate than those from Greece and Spain. In 2011, per capita gross domestic product in Ireland was greater than that in the UK. Meanwhile, the role of the state in the UK economy […]

Abstract submission is now open for the 24th Annual Human Behavior and Evolution Society meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Note that the deadline is March 16th, so the window for submission is narrow. For those who have not submitted to HBES before, note that the submission process requires only an abstract (200 words or fewer), […]

If you’re interested in money – and who isn’t? – David Wolman’s is a cracking good read. People think economics is all about money but actually very few economists think about money at all. If only more had done so … Continue reading → […]

Dan Griswold's "Immigration and the Welfare State" was my favorite in the Cato Journal immigration symposium.  Highlights:False stereotypes notwithstanding, immigrants have an awesome work ethic:The typical foreign-born adult resident of the United States today is more likely to participate in the work force than the typical native-born Americ […]

One of my occasional concerns about foreign policy is how ill-conceived, ill-informed, or simply illegal policies get fixed.  As I've noted before, one of the problems with relying on whistleblowers is that the kind of person who believes themselves to be a truthteller also tends to have otherbaggage.  To the blunt, the personality tropes that permit wh […]

A couple of points that have emerged in the debate over the Labor leadership need a response First, there’s the claim that there are no policy differences between Rudd and Gillard. This is often presented as if the two had independently arrived at the same position. In fact, as the equation in the post title […]

Christina and David Romer have a new paper (pdf), focusing on the interwar era: This paper uses the interwar period in the United States as a laboratory for investigating the incentive effects of changes in marginal income tax rates. Marginal rates changed frequently and drastically in the 1920s and 1930s, and the changes varied greatly […]

I've now read the full Cato Journal immigration issue cover-to-cover.  Leaving aside my lead article, here are my brief reactions:1. Gordon Hanson, "Immigration and Economic Growth."  Pretty good, especially on the interaction between high-skilled native labor and low-skilled immigrant labor:One contribution of low-skilled immigrants is to mak […]

It’s being called the “negative salary”: Due to austerity measures in Greece, it’s being reported that up to 64,000 Greeks will go without pay this month, and some will have to pay for having a job. Numbers in austerity reports have usually reflected figures in the millions, since they reflect industry-wide cuts (i.e.  a 537-million euro cut to […]

1. New Carl Zimmer project on science eBook reviews. 2. Empirical tests of how much “cold start” is a problem in labor economics.  From this general blog on on-line labor markets and their implications. 3. Markets in everything: dog TV. 4. NYT symposium on the farm bill, including yours truly. 5. Whorfian economics. 6. CrookedTimber […]