I’m in Boston this week, attending the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Summer Institute. Thanks to the magic of the internet, you too can see much of what I’m seeing. I’m flitting between the labor studies, health economics, tax, and children’s meetings, and am sorry I missed last week’s political economy meetings.
This morning, I went for a long run along the Charles River. When I look at it, I’m often reminded of a comment made by Les Murray when he came to Harvard to speak a few years ago. He said that he spent a week here, and still couldn’t come up with precisely the right word to describe the colour of the river.
gunmetal?
I like the paper by Mankiw and Weinzierl on the ‘Optimal taxation of height’.
This is actually a very serious issue for the future, given the likely identification of genetic characteristics that have a much stronger association with income-earning potential than does height.
As a utilitarian (and a man of average height) I’m all in favour of taxes on height.