Matt Nolan
Greens carbon tax - The Dismal Science
Jun 04, 2014 •
I see that the Greens have announced a carbon tax to replace the emissions trading scheme (with details and analysis by BERL here). The authors of TVHE have long been a fan of this type of switch when discussing the issue (eg here and here). And the idea of pricing an externality and using it […]
Can physicists please look at a basic textbook before releasing these things - The Dismal Science
Jun 03, 2014 •
FFS, this is probably the worst example of a physicist treating economists like idiots, and saying something both meaningless and already known, that I’ve seen for a while (via Marginal Revolution). The basic inequality that plagues economies the world over may have a simple explanation—at least, according to physicists who’ve turned to economics. Simple explanation […]
New Zealand’s labour market recovery in ‘ONE CHART’ - The Dismal Science
May 28, 2014 •
I hate one chart posts. No that was too weak, I despise single chart posts. But given that I am under the thumb of greater forces than myself (my thesis, my job) I have decided to do one. So what is this chart that tells us about the NZ labour market recovery? It is actually […]
Inward migration: A story of no-one wanting to leave - The Dismal Science
May 26, 2014 •
I endorse this post by Aaron Schiff – go read it. You will also notice in the above chart that over the past ten years the number of arrivals has been relatively steady with a slight upwards trend, while departures is more volatile. Thus temporary spikes in net migration seem to be caused more often […]
Global corporations, price discrimination, and NZ - The Dismal Science
May 22, 2014 •
I see that there is a new paper out discussing the fact that both tradable and non-tradable prices in New Zealand are “high” relative to what people are paying around the rest of the world. I am used to the argument about non-tradable prices being high RELATIVE to tradable prices, but the tradable price argument […]
Beware the seductive simplicity of the Spirit Level - The Dismal Science
May 19, 2014 •
I see that the Spirit Level authors are in town, and as a result there was a recent Herald article took aim at income inequality in New Zealand, relying strongly on the book ‘The Spirit Level’. A conversation about the inequalities society believes are fair, or at least justifiable, is a good thing. However, the […]
National’s not alternative budget: Budget 2014 - The Dismal Science
May 16, 2014 •
There is excellent commentary on the Budget here (Kiwiblog, Economics NZ) and really cool visualisations by Keith Ng here (his post here). I suggest looking at those, it is much better than anything I can offer here. However, I can’t help talking. And looking through the budget documents I felt that something has been confirmed for […]
Budget day warmup - The Dismal Science
May 15, 2014 •
I realise people are probably pretty excited about the Budget later today – as that is something some people tend to get excited about. I remember my family used to buy copies of the Budget documents, and go on and on about them – although I’m fairly sure I never saw them actually read them […]
Labour’s alternative budget - The Dismal Science
May 14, 2014 •
I suppose that this was Labour’s alternative budget. They’ve taken the policy documents they’ve put together recently and stuck them together in a blog post. Fair enough, it is a good idea to put together policy documents so why not – I really like the idea of detailed policy documents by the opposition as well, […]
ACT’s alternative budget - The Dismal Science
May 14, 2014 •
As of now I’ve only seen one alternative budget come out prior to Thursday’s Budget – the ACT party’s one (Stuff,NBR). Good on them for releasing an alternative budget, I like to see that sort of thing. However, I have to admit I was a little more than ‘very disappointed’ with the quality of the […]