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Sep 20, 2024 | 
econlib.org | David Henderson |Scott Sumner |Darwyyn Deyo |Alicia Plemmons
The story was NOT apocryphal. An email from Marjorie Oi, the widow of the late economist Walter Oi, prompted this post. I had written an appreciative piece in Regulation in 2014, shortly after Walter Oi died in December 2013. I often don’t like the titles that editors choose; I usually prefer my own.
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Sep 20, 2024 | 
econlib.org | Scott Sumner |Darwyyn Deyo |Alicia Plemmons |Kevin Corcoran
Tyler Cowen recently linked to a study that suggests the public does not believe in supply and demand, at least when applied to the housing market:
Recent research finds that most people want lower housing prices but, contrary to expert consensus, do not believe that more supply would lower prices.
Before addressing housing, it’s worth noting that a similar sort of pessimism crops up in many other contexts.
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Sep 20, 2024 | 
econlib.org | Darwyyn Deyo |Alicia Plemmons |Kevin Corcoran |Scott Sumner
[Editor’s note: This is part 3 of a three-part series. You can read part 1 here, and part 2 here.]Good institutions can be hard to come by, however, especially in The Mummy and The Mummy Returns.
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Sep 13, 2024 | 
econlib.org | David Henderson |Jon Murphy |Darwyyn Deyo |Alicia Plemmons
Back in July, I did two posts (here and here) on Public Policy for Progressives by my friend and former colleague Jonathan Lipow. Occasionally I’ll hit highlights from the later parts of the book. This one caught my attention. It turns out that countries with high rates of home ownership suffer from serious social pathologies. And of these, the most important is that high rates of home ownership are associated with high rates of unemployment.
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Sep 13, 2024 | 
econlib.org | Jon Murphy |Darwyyn Deyo |Alicia Plemmons |Scott Sumner
Responding to two blog posts by myself and Kevin Corcoran on skepticism about Pigouvian taxes, Scott Sumner gives an example of a congestion tax in Orange County that has been a huge success. Scott writes:This example shows that not all Pigovian taxes are a failure. Other successes include congestion charges in cities like Singapore, London and Stockholm. Scott could have added Fairfax County, Virginia, to his list. I-66 runs from Washington DC through Fairfax County and out toward West Virginia.
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Sep 13, 2024 | 
econlib.org | Darwyyn Deyo |Alicia Plemmons |Adam Smith |Scott Sumner
In our previous post, we introduced EconLog readers to the possibility of using The Mummy and The Mummy Returns. This post continues that discussion. As another important lesson in economics, the iconic team-up of siblings Evelyn and Jonathan Carnahan with Rick O’Connell illustrate the value of specialization and comparative advantage.
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Sep 6, 2024 | 
econlib.org | David Henderson |Kevin Corcoran |Darwyyn Deyo |Alicia Plemmons
I posted last month on my Substack, “I Blog to Differ,” the first part of my interview with financial planner Drew Benson, a former student of mine in the Masters Macro class I taught at San Jose State University in early 2009. I posted on the last 35 minutes today on Substack and have decided, for the first time, to post the same thing here. Here’s the last 35 minutesSome highlights. 3:50: Lockdowns led to a less-robust civil society. 5:35: Connection between lockdowns and George Floyd riots.
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Sep 6, 2024 | 
econlib.org | Kevin Corcoran |Darwyyn Deyo |Alicia Plemmons
The title of this post is a reference to an excellent book edited by Dan Klein and Fred Foldvary, The Half-Life of Policy Rationales: How New Technology Affects Old Policy Issues.
The book looks at how many of the arguments given to justify state intervention – such as public goods arguments – are not intrinsic realities. They can quite often be down to little more than technological limitations.
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Sep 6, 2024 | 
econlib.org | Darwyyn Deyo |Alicia Plemmons |Kevin Corcoran |Pierre Lemieux
Note to the readers: This article contains many spoilers for both The Mummy (1999) and The Mummy Returns (2001). This year marks the 25th anniversary of the cinematic masterpiece starring Rachel Weisz, Brendan Fraser, and Oded Fehr The Mummy (1999). With books of gold and trowels of steel, the battle between the mummy of a high priest and the clumsy Egyptologist librarian stole the hearts of an entire generation.
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Oct 24, 2023 | 
archbridgeinstitute.org | Justin Callais |Vincent Geloso |Alicia Plemmons
Click here to open the PDF in a new tab. Many scholars have examined the role of social capital in determining economic and social mobility. However, few have tied the role of market institutions (namely, economic freedom) in determining social mobility. We combine the economic freedom data at the MSA-level with social capital data from Chetty et al. 2022 to estimate their effects on social mobility within the United States.
