~marginalrevolution | Bookmarks (34)

Very few people are looking closely at the illegal sand system or calling for changes, however, because sand is a mundane resource. Yet sand mining is the world’s largest extraction industry because sand is a main ingredient in concrete, and the global construction industry has been soaring for decades. Every year the world uses up […] The post The economics of illicit sand markets...

🇦🇷Milei's has hit the limits of his reform agenda w/ the govt being forced to rescind all of the articles in the omnibus reform bill related to fiscal matters. A sticking point: provinces oppose the increase & expansion of the scope of export taxeshttps://t.co/9o4uOU0CBN — Nicolás Saldías (@NicSaldias) January 28, 2024 The post Milei update, a further report will be pending appeared first on...

What would happen if the FDA regulated pharmaceuticals much less than currently? I have pointed to one useful comparison, new uses of old drugs do not have to go through FDA required efficacy trials in the new use. In other words, new uses of old drugs are regulated for safety-only. Thus, “off-label prescribing” provides a […] The post Surgery is Not FDA Regulated appeared...

Have you ever wondered why empty storefronts in major cities stay empty for so long?  There is a new and still in the works paper by Daniel Stackman and Erica Moszkowski, and it provides valuable information about one piece of the puzzle.  Here is the abstract: We document the rise of storefront vacancies in prime […] The post The Contractual Origins of High-Rent Urban...

1) From the recent annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene (abstract 6949) we learn that the R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine maintained it’s efficacy over 4 seasons. …Importantly, maintained high efficacy over four malaria seasons with only four doses is demonstrated, with no concerns to date of rebound in those who have […] The post Two Updates on the Value of...

During the pandemic, when vaccines doses were scarce, I argued for fractional dosing to speed vaccination and maximize social benefits. But what dose? In my latest paper, just published in PNAS, with Phillip Boonstra and Garth Strohbehn, I look at optimal trial design when you want to quickly discover a fractional dose with good properties […] The post Dose Optimization Trials Enable Fractional Dosing...

Take the pig’s ear first. Unveiled in 2008 as a $15bn smart city project, Konza Technopolis was supposed to be the heart of Kenya’s “silicon savannah” that, by 2020, would create 100,000 jobs and add 2% to gdp. Three years and many missed deadlines later, there is still far more evidence of savannah than silicon. By […] The post *The Economist* on Tatu City, Kenya...

Here is the audio, video, and transcript.  Here is part of the episode summary: Tyler sat down with Patrick to discuss signature fields on the back of credit cards, whether bank tellers or waitstaff are more trustworthy, the gremlins behind spurious credit card declines, how debt collection and maple syrup heists should change your model […] The post My Conversation with the excellent Patrick...

As she did on the LBRY case (n.b. I was a LBRY advisor), SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce released a statement about the failings of the SEC with regards to the recently approved Bitcoin spot ETPs. It’s rare to read something this brutal coming from the inside. We squandered a decade of opportunities to do our […] The post Hester Peirce on the SEC appeared...

Why do today’s dishwashers typically take more than 2 hours to run through a normal cycle when less than a hour was common in the past? The reason is absurd energy and water “conservation” rules. These rules, imposed on dish and clothes washers, have made these products perform worse than in the past, cleaning less […] The post Back to the Future: Power Dishwashers!...