Marginal Revolution

Nov 9, 2024 | marginalrevolution.com | Alex Tabarrok

You’ve likely heard of Prospera, the private city in Honduras established under the ZEDE (Zone for Employment and Economic Development) law, which has drawn global investment for medical innovation. The current Honduran government is trying to break its contracts and evict Prospera from Honduras.

Nov 7, 2024 | marginalrevolution.com | Alex Tabarrok

The prediction markets predicted the election outcome more accurately and more quickly than polls or other forecasting methods, just as expected from decades of research. In this election, however, many people discounted the prediction markets because of large trades on Polymarket. Paul Krugman, for example, wrote:Never mind the prediction markets, which are thin and easily manipulated. None of that was true but perhaps that was par for the course.

Nov 6, 2024 | marginalrevolution.com | Alex Tabarrok

The economy is strong and Trump has a significant opportunity to simply take credit for that if he avoids major disruptions. While he must fulfill some of his campaign promises, people voted for Trump not for his policies per se. Trump has leeway. No one will accuse him of flip-flopping. While these are not my first-best policies, Trump won against astounding media and elite opposition and an attempted assassination.

Nov 3, 2024 | marginalrevolution.com | Alex Tabarrok

I have argued that there are on the order of just 164 thousand very high-IQ workers in the United States. How do we get more? Ian Calaway on the job market from Stanford has an interesting paper arguing that early math mentors can be a force multiplier for students with superior math abilities.

Nov 2, 2024 | marginalrevolution.com | Alex Tabarrok

From the team that brought you Hayek v. Keynes we have the immigration rap battle featuring “George Borjas,” “Garett Jones” and “Stephen Miller” on team build the wall and “Bryan Caplan” and “Alex Nowrasteh” on open the border. I wouldn’t say the actors (AI?), look very much like their real world counterparts but much respect to the author of the rap lyrics who has brilliantly captured the essence of the ideas economically and thematically. VIDEO