Category Everyday economics
Why readers believe this blog is too left wing — or too right wing or too…
When Stephen Gordon's recent post on heating costs was reprinted in the National Post's Full Comment section, a few commentators were somewhat hostile: "What a surprise that a professor from Quebec believes we should take even more from 'the rich' and give to 'the poor.'" "If this socialist extremist had his way…" My recent post […]
The economics of health care: lessons from the animal hospital
The veterinarian called at 2:30 a.m with an update on our dog's status. The bladder stone was still stuck in Micky's urethra. Did we want to go ahead with surgery, or…? The unstated alternative: euthanasia. As I sank back on the pillow I thought "I've been teaching health economics wrong all these years."
Saving by buying lottery tickets
Another sad news day. An older woman, living on a fixed income. Faced with an emergency, she had paid for purchases with a department store credit card. The card's interest rate, including service charges, was 29 percent. She was barely able to pay the interest on the card. To reduce the amount owing was impossible. […]
Firefighting is not a public good
In economics, public goods are ones that are (a) non-excludable and (b) non-rival. Non-excludable means that it is impossible to stop someone from enjoying the public good. For example, radio broadcasts can be picked up by anyone with a receiver. Non-rival means that one person's consumption of the good does not limit the amount available […]
Is it getting harder to publish?
Another week, another rejection letter. Am I writing bad papers, or is it getting harder to publish?
When academic publishing goes wrong: the case of missing women and Hepatitis B
This is a story about how something that turns out to be wrong can be published in a top journal, and what happens next. The Freakonomics team tell good stories, so I'll let them begin. In 2005, they wrote an article in Slate magazine lavishly praising the work of a young economist called Emily Oster.
Every click counts
Every time a student or researcher clicks his mouse, he is appraising scholarship – is it worth viewing? downloading? The information generated by on-line activity is gathered by university libraries, publishers, and a host of other users. Repec, for example, collects file view and download statistics, and uses them to rank authors.
Do women promote women?
It's tenure and promotion time. In universities across the country, assistant professors are preparing their files, bundling together every article they have ever published. The files are sent out to external reviewers, experts in the candidate's field, whose carefully worded letters can make or break young academics' careers. Every year I am asked to do […]
The house price fairy
The house price fairy visited me last night. She offered me three choices: she would instantly double all house prices; she would instantly halve all house prices; or she would leave all house prices the same. "You stupid fairy!" I replied. "Don't you know i already own this house, and I have no plans to […]
Liquidity and used cars; liquidity as the slope of the round-trip curve
Conclusion: liquidity should not be measured by the cost of a round-trip from money into the asset and back to money. Instead, liquidity should be measured by the slope of the curve relating the cost of a round-trip against the time taken to make that round-trip. Liquidity has puzzled me for a long time. It's […]
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