The Dismal Science

Eric Crampton on the sugar tax and Otago’s response

Eric Crampton • Apr 06, 2018

• Australian Grattan Institute,
• cardiovascular disease,
• consumption,
• Health,
• health economics,
• Ministry of Health,
• quantum,
• social cost,
• sugar,
• Sugar Tax

Otago’s public health people, perhaps unsurprisingly, didn’t like NZIER’s take on sugar taxes. They’ve blogged on it here, but they seem to have missed a few important points. A Report commissioned by the Ministry of Health, written by NZIER, has recently been getting air-time as an argument against taxing sugary drinks.  However, the Report seems to us to be … Read More

Opinion: Eric Crampton on the Psychoactive Substances Amendment Bill

Eric Crampton • Mar 23, 2018

• black market,
• compassion,
• Drugs,
• government,
• Health,
• laws,
• legislation,
• marijuana,
• MODA,
• National,
• pills,
• prison,
• Psychoactive Substances Act,
• psychoactives,
• Supply and Distribution,
• synthetic cannabis

Legal markets for marijuana and ecstasy and the safer party pills, where products were subject to the Consumer Guarantees Act and where producers adulterating products would be punished, would stop Fentanyl-laced drugs at concerts and would be far more effective than ramping up punishments for producers of synthetic drugs. National pushing for increased penalties on this one is … Read More

2

The deregulated interregnum

Eric Crampton • Mar 16, 2018

• chemicals,
• Doctors,
• e-cigarette,
• ecigarettes,
• EPA,
• FDA,
• Health,
• Legalisation,
• legislation,
• medical,
• prescription,
• Pseudoephedrine,
• regulation,
• tax,
• tobacco,
• vaping

E-cigarettes in New Zealand are in a really interesting spot right now. Last year, the then National-government signalled that a new legal regime for vaping was on its way. At the time, importation of nicotine-containing vaping liquids for personal consumption was allowed, but retail sale within New Zealand was not. That wasn’t to say it didn’t happen, but you kinda … Read More

Rational addiction and Naloxone

Eric Crampton • Mar 12, 2018

• Addiction,
• alcohol,
• Becker-Murphy,
• consumer,
• disease,
• Drugs,
• marijuana,
• Moral Hazard,
• Naloxene,
• opioids,
• overdose,
• policy

Suppose for a moment that addicts are rational and that we’re really in a Becker-Murphy world. What happens in that world if a new technology makes it safer to consume an addictive product? If you’re overdosing on opioids, Naloxone can save your life. The easier is access to Naloxone, the less likely addicts are to die if they have an … Read More

Sweet Relief: Eric Crampton on the Sugar Tax

Eric Crampton • Mar 08, 2018

• economics,
• government,
• Ministry of Health,
• New Zealand,
• opinion,
• public health,
• Sugar Tax,
• treasury

For the past several years, public health lobbyists have pretended that all opposition to sugar taxes is ideologically motivated or dishonest. They have argued that the only thing stopping the government from implementing their beneficent proposals has been the actions of nefarious interest groups. And so it is interesting to read what the Ministry of Health’s officials actually thought about … Read More

Competition and search in internet markets for used books

Paul Walker • Mar 02, 2018

• books,
• competition,
• Consumers,
• intenet,
• internet,
• markets,
• price,
• revenue,
• sellers

A couple of years back in an email about my book The Theory of the Firm: An overview of the economic mainstream I wrote: The other thing I don’t get is the price dispersion. $180 at the book depository but $355 at the NZ based Mighty Ape website. Isn’t this internet thingy supposed to do away with price … Read More

On the link between US pay and productivity

Paul Walker • Feb 26, 2018

• Americans,
• compensation,
• income inequality,
• Labour,
• pay increase,
• productivity,
• redistribution

From VoxEU.org comes a column by Anna Stansbury and Lawrence Summers on the relationship between pay and productivity in the US. Since 1973, there has been divergence between labour productivity and the typical worker’s pay in the US as productivity has continued to grow strongly and growth in average compensation has slowed substantially. This … Read More

Earthquake anniversaries

Eric Crampton • Feb 22, 2018

• business,
• Christchurch,
• earthquake,
• GNS,
• insurance,
• parliament,
• Planning,
• Wellington

Seventh anniversary of the Christchurch earthquakes. GNS figures there’s about a 1/120 annual risk of something of similar size hitting Wellington: 0.833%. Recovery here will be much harder than in Christchurch. There are few local options for firms to relocate to while downtown is torn down and possibly rebuilt. There are few transit routes in and out. The airport could … Read More

Cannabis Cross-price Elasticities

Eric Crampton • Feb 19, 2018

• alcohol,
• alcohol tax,
• Cannabis,
• Colorado,
• marijuana,
• medical marijuana,
• Washington

It’s been a bit of an open question whether legalised marijuana would lead to more or less alcohol use.  If the two goods are complements, say if people liked drinking while consuming cannabis, then any increase in cannabis use could yield greater alcohol use. If they were substitutes and people smoked instead of drinking, alcohol use could drop. RAND … Read More

Informative advertising

Eric Crampton • Feb 09, 2018

• advertising,
• cigarettes,
• e-cigarettes,
• Nicotine,
• vaping

New Zealand’s in a fun legal limbo right now on e-cigarettes. Everybody knows that the Ministry of Health is soon to be liberalising, so the de jure restrictions that prevent selling of nicotine-containing e-liquids aren’t being enforced. It’s pretty easy to get vaping liquid. In some ways, whatever regulatory regime comes out of this will be more restrictive than the … Read More