~marginalrevolution | Bookmarks (41)

I have been following only snippets of the debate over whether Biden should step down as the Democratic nominee, for instance here Josh Marshall responds to Ezra Klein (NYT).  Most of all, I am struck by how little faith some of the commentators have in democratic processes.  Let’s consider a few possible arguments why Biden […] The post Well-functioning democracy for neither me nor...

Both rightists and leftists assume that the U.S. spends far lower to combat social problems (poverty, healthcare, education) than peer nations, but that is not true. pic.twitter.com/CXdVDNWb6p — David (@Data_David1) February 18, 2024 Here Robin Hanson notes that social spending as a percent of gdp tends to rise almost universally: Key question: will these trends […] The post I am tired of making this...

Correlations between spouses Extraversion: r= .005Neuroticism: .082Height: .227Weight: .154Education: .5Political party: .6 "Mates tend to be positively but weakly concordant on personality and physical traits, but concordance of political attitudes is extremely high" pic.twitter.com/BmdpySfakh — Rob Henderson (@robkhenderson) February 10, 2024 The post Correlations between spouses appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to joan. “Women don't change their beliefs or ... by...

Why does schooling in much of the developing world not result in much in the way of increased skills? Maybe because education bureaucrats in these counties want obedient citizens more than literate, numerate, informed citizens. In a discrete choice experiment in which bureaucrats in education were asked to make trade-offs between foundational literacy, completion of secondary […] The post Literacy or Loyalty? appeared first on...

The key insight is that women have always been more [economically] left-wing than men, but that women were also more religious (both vs today and vs men) and that this was a moderating force against those left-wing views. With religion in retreat, those views now take voice. pic.twitter.com/Ed3GJyHhap — John Burn-Murdoch (@jburnmurdoch) February 2, 2024 The post Religion and the ideological gender gap appeared...

No, but they did get him some votes there: We study the economic and political consequences of the 2018-2019 trade war between the United States, China and other US trade partners at the detailed geographic level, exploiting measures of local exposure to US import tariffs, foreign retaliatory tariffs, and US compensation programs. The trade-war has […] The post Did the Trump tariffs help the...

It was meant as an insult, implying that Mises – a marginalist – was trying to salvage 19th century liberal economics from the collectivist attacks of the Marxist left and the Nazi right, hence the “neo” moniker being attached. One of the main promoters of this use was Othmar Spann, a rival of Mises on […] The post From the beginning, “neoliberalism” was an...

“I suggest, Men and women tend to think alike in societies where there is Close-knit interdependence, religosity and authoritarianism, or Shared cultural production and mixed gendered offline socialising. Gendered ideological polarisation appears encouraged by: Feminised public culture Economic resentment Social media filter bubbles Cultural entrepreneurs.” Here is the full piece, currently the best piece on […] The post Alice Evans on the ideological gender...

East India Company founded — 1600 Shakespeare – Hamlet published 1603 England starting to settle America – 1607 in Virginia, assorted, you could add Harvard here as well King James Bible – 1611 The beginnings of steady economic growth – 1620 (Greg Clark, JPE) Rule of law ideas, common law ideas, Sir Edward Coke – […] The post What happened in 17th century England...

That is the focus of my latest Bloomberg column, 2x the normal length.  I cannot cover all the points, but here is one excerpt: The larger theme is becoming evident: AI will radically disrupt power relations in society. AI may severely limit, for instance, the status and earnings of the so-called “wordcel” class. It will […] The post What are the actual dangers of...

Polarization in the traditional sense is not very important: …this study examined the criminal codes of the six largest deep red states and the six largest deep blue states – states in which a single political party has held the governorship and control of both legislative bodies for at least the past three elections. It […] The post How and why do legal codes...

Let us say you favor policy X, and take steps to see that policy X comes about. Under many conditions, people who favor non-X will take additional countervailing steps to oppose X.  And in that case your actions in favor of X, on average, will lead to nothing.  In the meantime, you and also your […] The post Social improvements that don’t create countervailing...

Adrian Wooldridge has an excellent Bloomberg column on this topic, promoting the relevance of Thomas Mann, and here is one excerpt: In the book [Magic Mountain], Castorp falls in with two intellectuals who live in the village of Davos below his sanitorium: an Italian humanist called Lodovico Settembrini and a Jewish-born cosmopolitan called Leo Naphta […] The post Settembrini and the continuing relevance of...

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...

Probably not forever, but we are living in strange times: Now the theory needs major revision. Political leaders still wish to manipulate economic variables in their favor, of course. But economies, as well as voters, are not going along — and so the standard mechanisms for political business cycle theory are broken… Under political business […] The post Political business cycle theory has been...

I was wondering if you would consider writing a post about the German debt brake in light of recent developments? Personally, I am not a huge fan of discussions about fiscal policy (or even worse, austerity…), as I feel they are mostly Rorschach test without much deep thinking. But I did find the recent developments […] The post Kamil Kovar on the German debt...

Yes, I will be doing another Conversation with him.  Here is my previous Conversation with him, almost eight years ago.  As many of you will know, Jonathan has a new book coming out, namely The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness.  But there is much more […] The post What should I ask Jonathan Haidt?...