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Rock Music, Technology, and the Top 1%

posted to CONVERSABLE ECONOMIST on Tue 18th Jun 13

I'm always on the lookout for real-world applications about how technology is altering the distribution of income. Applications that have intuitive appeal for students are even better! Thus, I enjoyed on several levels Alan Krueger's recent talk at the Rock
Flexibility and Neoclassical Economics

posted to CONVERSABLE ECONOMIST on Fri 14th Jun 13

A common complaint from some of those learning economics, and from some economists themselves, is that the formal study of economics is straitjacket that limits analysis and constrains policy conclusions--in particular that it leads to an overappreciation of
250,000 New Permanent Federal Employees?

posted to CONVERSABLE ECONOMIST on Thu 13th Jun 13

My perhaps old-fashioned view of government is that it exists to carry out tasks on behalf of the citizenry. Although the government needs to hire people to carry out those tasks, government employees are not a purpose of government; instead, they are a cost

Falling Labor Force Participation

posted to CONVERSABLE ECONOMIST on Thu 26th Apr 12

The percentage of the U.S. adult population that is either working or unemployed and looking for a job is called the labor force participation rate. From the early 1960s to the late 1990s, this percentage rose more-or-less steadily, from 59% to 67%. But since
The Role of Safe Assets in a Financial System

posted to CONVERSABLE ECONOMIST on Wed 18th Jan 12

Gary Gorton, Stefan Lewellen, and Andrew Metrick presented "The Safe-Asset Share," one of those rare academic papers with a basic empirical finding that shakes up your mental landscape, at the annual meetings of the Allied Social Science Associations
Spending on America's Pets

posted to CONVERSABLE ECONOMIST on Tue 21st May 13

Steve Henderson of the U.S. Census Bureau pulls together data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey and looks at "Spending on pets." He writes (footnotes omitted): "Nearly three-quarters of U.S. households own pets. There are about 218 million pets in the United

Links for 06-15-2013

posted to Economist's View on Sat 15th Jun 13

IMF Urges Washington to Repeal Ill-Designed Spending Cuts - NYTWhy Bernanke was right to speak out on fiscal policy - mainly macroAuctioning Off the Jobs Report and Economic Efficiency - Dean BakerFiscalists, Monetarists, Credibility, and Turf - Paul KrugmanFixing
How to best graph the Beveridge curve, relating the vacancy rate in jobs to the unemployment rate?

posted to Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science on Wed 12th Jun 13

Jonathan Robinson writes:I’m a survey researcher who mostly does political work, but I also have a strong interest in economics. I have a question about this graph you commonly see in the economics literature. It is of a concept called the Beveridge Curve
Links for 06-12-2013

posted to Economist's View on Wed 12th Jun 13

Is Apple harming the feature innovation ecosystem? - DigitopolyThe effects of broadband internet on political participation - Vox EUWhy Isnt Disruptive Technology Lifting Us Out of the Recession? - BrookingsUpdate on the Yield Curve - EconbrowserThe overstated