The Dismal Science

Are experts really being ignored?

Michael Reddell • Feb 20, 2017

• advice,
• Brexit,
• democracy,
• expertise,
• experts,
• politics

A few months ago, I wrote a post on the role of “experts”, responding to a British journalist and author’s lament for the apparent willlingness of voters/societies to downplay, or even dismiss, the role of experts when it comes to making significant public policy decisions. In his column in yesterday’s Sunday Star-Times, local economist Shamubeel Eaqub returns to … Read More

Junk food taxes: more sweet silliness

Eric Crampton • Feb 16, 2017

• alcohol,
• fat,
• junk food tax,
• nutrition,
• public health,
• salt,
• sugar,
• Sugar Tax

A new paper suggests strong public health benefits from junk food taxes in Australia. Blogging has been light as I’ve too much on deck in the day-job currently, but since a few people have emailed me asking about this one, I might as well put here what I’ve told them. The effects found in the paper depend on how … Read More

How old is behavioural economics?

Paul Walker • Feb 01, 2017

• Behavioural economics,
• Psychology

I came across an interesting paper the other day that suggests behavioural economics is older than most people think. The paper “The Relations of Recent Psychological Developments to Economic Theory” by Z. Clark Dickinson in The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 33, No. 3: 377-421 dates from May 1919! The summary of the paper reads, The purely objective factors … Read More

UK’s migrant loss NZ’s gain? A Brexitunity

Eric Crampton • Jan 29, 2017

• Brexit,
• EU,
• immigration,
• migrants,
• UK

If the UK is set to kick out a pile of highly skilled academics working there on EU passports, maybe New Zealand should look to the Brexitunity.  I don’t know how many of them would move to New Zealand, and I don’t know which Departments have holes that need filling. But I’d expect that invitations to apply coming from New … Read More

Citizen Thiel and ‘seasteading’

Eric Crampton • Jan 27, 2017

• democracy,
• immigration,
• Peter Thiel,
• Seasteading,
• Society

A new year brings a new New Zealand media and Twitter zeitgeist, thanks to the revelation that US tech entrepreneur Peter Thiel is a New Zealand citizen. Tired: Low-skilled immigrants from China and the Pacific are ruining our economy. They’re hurting New Zealand’s productivity stats, they’re making New Zealand a low-wage economy, and they’re stealing all the houses. We need … Read More

I smell burnt toast! Acrylamide and cancer

Eric Crampton • Jan 25, 2017

• acrylamide,
• cancer,
• carcinogen,
• EU,
• food regulation

One way to help shore up public support for Brexit when there’s been a bit of post-referendum second-thoughts: vigilant enforcement of the stupidest possible Eurocrat regulations. Remind Britons why they want to leave. And the Eurocrats have come up with a doozey. Chris Snowdon points to the coming EU campaign against baked potatoes. Pubs and restaurants could soon … Read More

Not so flush? You may still be in the global 1%

Eric Crampton • Jan 16, 2017

• Credit Suisse,
• poverty,
• wealth

The Oxfam report on global inequality continues to make news in New Zealand. A few tidbits from the Credit Suisse report on which Oxfam’s figures are based: If you have net assets of $2,200 USD ($3,098 NZD), you’re in the world’s top half. If you have net assets of $71,560 USD ($100,760 NZD), you’re in the world’s … Read More

Curbing alcohol advertising – where’s the evidence?

Eric Crampton • Jan 13, 2017

• alcohol,
• alcohol advertising

The usual lot want to ban alcohol advertising in sport, to protect kids. [The Science Media Centre rounded up some commentary on the research too – Sciblogs Ed] I’ll excerpt from my submission to the Ministerial Forum on Alcohol Advertising and Sponsorship of a couple of years ago; the whole thing is here. They were focused on … Read More

5

An economist chooses his favourite books of 2016

Donal Curtin • Dec 18, 2016

• 2016,
• books,
• economics

Surrounded by “isn’t it awful”, “the world is going to the dogs” types? Here are two antidotes: Nobel laureate Angus Deaton’s The Great Escape: Health, Wealth and the Origins of Inequality and Johan Norberg’s Progress: Ten Reasons to Look Forward to the Future. Both document the immense progress made in the past three hundred years by large parts … Read More

1

Brexit, Trump and all that

Michael Reddell • Dec 14, 2016

• Brexit,
• economics,
• EU,
• politics,
• trump,
• UK,
• US

Last week, The Treasury hosted a guest lecture featuring two visiting academics under the heading Brexit, Trump & Economics: Where did we go wrong.  One of the visitors –  Samuel Bowles, now a professor at the Santa Fe Insitute -had been around long enough that in his youth he had served as an economic adviser in Robert Kennedy’s presidential campaign,  … Read More