Lynne Kiesling The Economist recently did one of their periodic debates, this time on the pace and effects of technological progress. Moderator Ryan Avent framed the debate thus: This leads some scholars to conclude that accelerating technical change is an illusion. Autonomous vehicles and 3D printers are flashy but lack the transformative power of electricity …
Lynne Kiesling [vimeo 67808322 w=500 h=281] The Marginal Revolution in Economics from Lynne Kiesling on Vimeo. A fundamental question in economics is value theory — where do prices come from, what determents the value of a commodity, product, or good? The classical economists operated with a labor theory of value, but in the mid-19th century, …
Course Video 5: The Marginal Revolution and Carl Menger Read More »
Lynne Kiesling As is his wont, Mike Munger speaks vast amounts of sense in this month’s Cato Unbound, focusing on the political economy of recycling. I’ve never seen a better articulation of the various energy and economic tradeoffs associated with recycling than Mike’s presented here. For example, Mike does a great job of pointing out …
Lynne Kiesling The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson parses Mary Meeker’s annual state of the Internet presentation, which includes some nifty and insightful analyses of data. Here’s my favorite: Note that this is in percentage terms, so it doesn’t show the overall increase in the number and variety of digital devices used — the number of devices …
Lynne Kiesling As Megan McArdle noted on Wednesday, fracking in the US is causing dissension within OPEC; couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of cartel members. Megan’s analysis is dead on, well worth reading, and reveals how different the ideal strategies are of the different OPEC members. At some level, this is not new — …
Lynne Kiesling Cutting down trees to generate biofuels to substitute for fossil fuels can’t make sense in terms of carbon accounting, can it? I never thought so, but apparently some people have contended that it does. This Project Syndicate essay from Bjorn Lomborg addresses the question, and I think it’s worthy of consideration not just …
Lynne Kiesling [vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/66335887 w=500&h=281] David Ricardo: Principles of Political Economy & Taxation from Lynne Kiesling on Vimeo. You may know David Ricardo for his pioneering analysis of comparative advantage as the foundation of mutually beneficial specialization and trade. Ricardo’s work goes farther and deeper than that, exploring (among other things) the determinants of rent …
Course Video 3: David Ricardo on Rent and on Trade Read More »
Lynne Kiesling Here’s the second video for my history of economic thought course: a synopsis of Adam Smith’s Inquiry Concerning the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. The video gives an overview of the entire work (except for Book III, his stage theory of history), and I hope it entices you to read …
Lynne Kiesling For the past few months I’ve been working with some talented and creative folks at Northwestern University Academic Technologies to produce some videos for use in my History of Economic Thought course. Over the next few weeks I’ll be releasing them here, and they will be available on my Vimeo page. Please distribute …
Course Video 1: Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments Read More »
Lynne Kiesling Last week the EPA released a report on the extent of methane release during shale gas drilling; the results indicate that methane release is substantially smaller than previously thought. According to an article in Fuel Fix summarizing the report, The scope of the EPA’s revision was vast. In a mid-April report on greenhouse …
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