James Zuccollo
The UK’s new fiscal rule won’t last - The Dismal Science
Dec 28, 2014 •
This post draws upon a blog I wrote for The Reformer. A few days ago I wrote about the lessons that can be drawn from the recent history of the UK’s fiscal rules. This post measures the Government’s new Charter for Fiscal Responsibility against them. The Charter sets out the Government’s fiscal rule and requires […]
A (very) short history of UK fiscal rules - The Dismal Science
Dec 27, 2014 •
Earlier this week the UK Government announced its new fiscal rule, which defines the fiscal envelope. For those of you who aren’t British, the deficit exceeded 10% of GDP during the recession and fiscal sustainability has become an important political issue, even for people who aren’t econ junkies! Unfortunately, this new rule is unlikely to […]
Christmas reading: McCloskey on Piketty - The Dismal Science
Dec 25, 2014 •
It’s taken me a month to read it but Deirdre McCloskey’s essay on Piketty’s Capital is just as persuasive as you’d expect. Print it and read it with your family over Christmas! The review doesn’t break any new ground but it is eloquent and engaging. Her central themes are: The Industrial Revolution and Great Enrichment […]
The equation for happiness - The Dismal Science
Aug 12, 2014 •
As the world starts to move from focusing on growth to wellbeing a group of neuroscientists decided to test people’s brains to check whether ‘happiness’ occurred as predicted. The BBC reports that they found “We can look at past decisions and outcomes and predict exactly how happy you will say you are at any point in […]
Football referees aren’t just wrong, they’re biased - The Dismal Science
Jun 18, 2014 •
Football penalties are often controversial and the first couple of days of the World Cup have already provided one dubious decision. Luckily for the referee’s personal safety it favoured the hosts, Brazil. But, according to Randal Olson’s fascinating analysis of penalty decisions, there may be more than luck involved: 70.6% of all penalty kicks were awarded to […]
There is no One Model to Rule Them All - The Dismal Science
Mar 10, 2014 •
I like the influence that physicists are having on economics. Moving towards agent-based modelling in some areas of the discipline is a great idea. But, in addition to lending their novel insights, some seem to enjoy piling on economics generally. Generally you have to take the good with the bad but Mark Buchanan’s latest article […]
Politicians vs policy analysts - The Dismal Science
Dec 10, 2013 •
Jonathan Portes has an interesting post on the Department of Work and Pensions’ analysis of Mandatory Work Activity. Jonathan does a great job summarising the research and it’s fantastic to see good evaluation coming out of the Department. The political headline of the post is less positive: “DWP analysis shows mandatory work activity is largely […]
Quandl update - The Dismal Science
Oct 18, 2013 •
It’s been a few months since I wrote about how much I love Quandl so you might be wondering how things are working out for me. The good stuff is still really good but there are a few things that still need work. The good I can import data directly from R/Python code without having […]
Everybody lies - The Dismal Science
Aug 09, 2013 •
Netflix makes a lot of money from understanding your viewing preferences and one thing they’ve learned is that ratings don’t matter, only viewing behaviour is predictive: Why do I see Continue Reading →
How Quandl changed my life - The Dismal Science
Aug 01, 2013 •
This post is a little out of the ordinary for TVHE but I thought I’d talk a bit about the tools I use every day. If you’re anything like me Continue Reading →