Knowledge Problem

American Biofuel Policy Increases Hardship on the Guatemalan Poor, and You Help Every Time You Buy Gasoline

Michael Giberson Next time you see one of those “This product may contain up to 10 percent ethanol” stickers on a gas pump, ask yourself why federal government biofuel policies are forcing you to help increase hunger and hardship among poor Guatemalans. Sure, politicians in their comfortable offices in Washington, DC, didn’t intend to help

Michael Giberson January 8, 2013 6 Comments

Price Gouging on Guns?

Newly showing up in the “price gouging” news searches: claims of price gouging on guns.

Michael Giberson January 8, 2013 2 Comments

What is Regulatory Capture?

Lynne Kiesling Regulatory capture is one of the defining phenomena in the political economy of regulation. What is regulatory capture, exactly? In a Tech Liberation post from 2010, Adam Thierer offers this definition: “Regulatory capture” occurs when special interests co-opt policymakers or political bodies — regulatory agencies, in particular — to further their own ends.

Lynne Kiesling January 4, 2013 2 Comments

New Areas for Innovation Push Back Against “The Great Stagnation”

Lynne Kiesling Happy New Year! Here’s a little dose of technology optimism to start your year off: 2012 was a good, solid year for innovation, and there’s room and opportunity for even more. This TechCrunch article describes some burgeoning innovation opportunities in health care, education, transportation, and entertainment. Here’s one thing to bear in mind

Lynne Kiesling January 3, 2013 No Comments

Best Wishes for 2013

Lynne Kiesling Happy New Year to all of you, and best wishes for a productive and peaceful 2013.

Knowledge Problem December 31, 2012 2 Comments

Dr. Ehrlich, Call Your Office

Michael Giberson I ended my semester in “Energy and Environmental Economics” talking about resource optimism and resource pessimism, framed mostly as a big picture debate between Julian Simon and others against Paul Ehrlich and Neo-Malthusians. Simon reports being puzzled at how folks could look at data showing human health and well-being getting better and better

Michael Giberson December 13, 2012 3 Comments

Landsburg on Pigou and Coase

Lynne Kiesling I appreciate this post from Steve Landsburg on Pigouvian models, Coasian models, and policies addressing external costs (and the comments are valuable too). The foil for his post is an Elizabeth Kolbert New Yorker column, in which she uses two examples to illustrate her argument in favor of a Pigouvian carbon tax —

Lynne Kiesling December 13, 2012 2 Comments

Deck the Halls with Macro Follies!

Lynne Kiesling For your holiday enjoyment, from John Papola and EconStories, Deck the Halls with Macro Follies! [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uKnd6IEiO0] John’s wry video does a great job of laying out the macroeconomic debate over the drivers of economic well-being — is Malthusian/Keynesian aggregate demand stimulus to overcome a general glut effective, or is saving to invest in

Lynne Kiesling December 13, 2012 No Comments

Economics Research Topics in Price Gouging from Odd-even Rationing to Guilt and Shame

Michael Giberson Today the Master Resource blog published my list of ten price gouging topics needing economic research. As I point out in the introduction, many economists think price gouging is too simple to be worth studying. After all, it is just a kind of price cap, and we know how price caps work. My response is that

Michael Giberson December 11, 2012 No Comments

Is the Great Society a Less Mobile One?

Michael Giberson Timothy Taylor observes Census Bureau data showing “geographic mobility in 2011 were at their all-time low since the start of the data in 1948, and were only a tad higher in 2012.” Here is the Census Bureau chart illustrating the data: Taylor considers a number of possible explanations, including many explored in a

Michael Giberson December 11, 2012 2 Comments

Tags

Categories