Eric Crampton • May 22, 2015 •
XKCD's spider explainer has been making the rounds. And one part reminded me of Gordon Tullock.In 2009, the Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant found themselves dealing with what they called an "extreme spider situation." An estimated 80 million orb-weaving spiders had colonized the plant, covering every surface with heavy sheets of web.[10] The whole thing is detailed in a fascinating … Read More
Eric Crampton • Oct 02, 2013 •
Don't give money to mutilated children if you want to discourage child mutilation. Sounds terrible? It's true. At least in places where it's plausible that money induces mutilation. Gordon Tullock explained the basic principle in his 1967 article, The Welfare Costs of Tariffs, Monopoly and Theft. Where there is some rent available, real resources will be devoted to attracting the … Read More
Eric Crampton • Jun 19, 2013 •
I'm not sure that Wellington Council, and the other local bodies, are setting out to create rents for property owners in soon-to-be-designated "fun" districts, but that's what they're soon to achieve. The alcohol reform legislation pushed alcohol regulation back to local bodies; local busybodies have consequently gotten busy lobbying local councils to restrict hours of operation and number of … Read More
Eric Crampton • Oct 15, 2012 •
Alvin Roth and Lloyd Shapley won this year's Economics Nobel. The prize was awarded "for the theory of stable allocations and the practice of market design". The Swedish Academy has awarded a few prizes in game theory and mechanism design recently,*... Read More