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If you are considering the net benefits of reducing the prospects of death using a costly technology then it is necessary to work out the value of a statistical life – a life that is anonymous but real. Non-economists find this macabre but the question makes perfect sense if budgets are limited as they always [...] Joe Stiglitz makes the sensible point that the “1%” society America has become cannot be sustainably successful. The prosperity of the 1% depends on the prosperity of the 99%. Gross inequality is also economically inefficient and distorts a country’s politics. Quote “It’s no use pretending that what has obviously happened has not in fact happened. [...] I have been attending the Tax Forum in Canberra for the past two days. I made a submission to this Forum on congestion pricing on roads and I made a presentation based on this submission in the Environmental and Social Taxes session. To be honest this was the only session at the Forum where I [...] Lenny Bruce once said ‘The only thing that people learn from history is that no one ever learns from history’. It is a nice quip although characteristically exaggerated. But the politicians of the world seem determined to demonstrate its accuracy in relation to the current economic crisis – yes, it is a crisis. The Great [...] I meant to comment on the updated ACSI report on chief executive salaries for the top 100 ASX companies in Australia, It was released a few days ago. Over the ten year period to 2010: Executives increased their annual salaries 131% to $4.322m. The median executive bonus increased 190%. The ASX increased in value 30.1%. Wages rose [...] From Greg Mankiw I got this interesting piece by Uwe Reinhardt critiquing the economic idea of efficiency – it’s a sequel to an earlier argument by Reinhardt. It interests me that both articles pop up in the business pages of the NYT. Roughly efficiency means in a producer setting that more valued output is obtained [...] Joseph Stiglitz is warning of a double dip recession in Europe because governments are becoming overly concerned with their deficits. Europe has similar fears but emphases weaknesses in US private sector housing demand that they some claim call for an increased US fiscal stimulus. Equity markets around the world – including Australia – are tipping [...] Craig Emerson capably discusses the collapse of the comprehensive RSPT and the adoption instead of a much narrower resource rental tax (an MMRT) on coal, oil and iron ore. Readers of this blog will know (see last post) that I have changed my view on the RSPT. It was a (possibly justifiable) grab for resources [...] I’ve been in Sydney most of this week attending the Australia’s Future Tax System – A Post-Henry Tax Review. It had some excellent speakers and was for me – not a taxation specialist – very informative. I particularly liked John Freebairn’s overview and a superb paper by Ben Smith which clarified my views on the resource [...] George Fane makes more sense than the group of 21 economist on the RSPT. I summarise. [...] This Aussi-sourced YouTube on the European debt crisis was hilariously scary. It has been doing the rounds but I picked it up on Greg Mankiw’s blog. The statement by economists supporting the RSPT resource rent tax is curious in its intent. It supports taxing profits rather than the existing production-based royalties as most economists would. But its other contentions that the mining industry will not ‘contract’ conflict with this view. The claim that depletable resources are ‘different’ to other industries suggests [...] Maybe there are legitimate reasons for this but I don’t know what they are. The Building the Education Revolution scheme splashed out $832,000 on a spartan looking school dunny in the drought-declared Bega Valley on NSW’s south coast – comparable blocks were built in Queensland for $25,000. The package included a small shed and a short [...] Ken Henry argues that introducing a super-profits tax and cutting royalty charges will increase investment in Australian mining because while firms are developing their mines and earning profits they will be less penalised in terms of reduced royalties and given additional exploration incentives – and they will only lose a fraction of their super-profits if they [...] I often get uneasy about some of the basic things I do when teaching microeconomics. One area that does concern is the basic issue of consumer choice. How deep should one dig? This is related to the optimal degree of mathematising microeconomics in this specific area. In simple terms you can analyse a consumer’s problem as [...] This excellent site collects them. I have a hell-of- a-lotta reading to do! I’ll add comments to the links below as I do. Recent items: Energy-Efficiency Program Evaluations: Opportunities for Learning and Inputs to Incentive Mechanisms Optimal Emission Pricing in the Presence of International Spillovers: Decomposing Leakage and Terms-of-Trade Motives Greenhouse Gas Regulation under the [...] I am planning an editorial in the journal I edit that encourages more public sector participation in published, public economic discussions. I’d appreciate comments on the draft below. As the Editor of Economic Papers: A Journal of Applied Economics and Applications I actively seek quality applied economics papers, particularly those with a policy orientation, that address [...] Spring has arrived in Beijing though the lakes are covered with a thin layer of grey ice and it is cold (2-4oC) with icy winds when you wander anywhere that has some open space. Pollution-smudged snow drifts are everywhere. Black-tailed magpies (so-called ‘happy birds’) are raucously setting up to breed in massive nests in the [...] I am not a keen supporter of numerical modelling of economic phenomena. I have seldom seen key issues of controversy in economics resolved by numerical modelling and think that, as a policy tool, numerical modelling does not improve on sensible thinking through of the issues using low order non-numerical and even purely conceptual models. It is [...] I provided these remarks at the 54th Annual Conference of AARES (Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society) that I am now attending in Adelaide. It is in the main a simple argument for using adaptive management techniques for managing highly uncertain and complex environmental systems. Very provisional. Revised, comments welcome. [...] |
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