Category Archives: Economics Generally

My economics group – in the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University – is seeking PhD students. Here’s a one-page flyer, and a more detailed document about our program.

In the weekend AFR, Dierdre Macken has an article on the steady expansion of economic research into non-traditional areas (or as she calls the phenomenon, ‘Everythingonomics’). The article profiles Justin Wolfers, Tim Harford, and yours truly; and also has some commentary from Australian … Continue reading →

Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers have a new paper out that debunks the Easterlin Paradox. It’s a classic Stevenson-Wolfers style “throw all the data we can find at the problem” paper, and it concludes that (a) rich people are happier than … Continue reading →

My AFR oped today is on randomised policy trials, with a particular discussion of what I think is the most fascinating randomised trial now in place in Australia – the Head Injury Retrieval Trial. I’m grateful to commenter Mark, who … Continue reading →

I spoke today at the Melbourne Institute’s conference on the topic of labour supply and labour shortages. For anyone who’s interested, here’s my powerpoint. I shared the stage with Judith Sloan, Jeff Lawrence, Heather Ridout and Guyonne Kalb, which made … Continue reading →

Several studies have looked at the impact of the French 35 hour week law on economic output (my recollection is that most find little impact). Now another study has looked at its effect on social capital. Its conclusion? Not much … Continue reading →

Steve Levitt and John List, writing about behavioural economics in Science: Most of this research eschews a narrow conception of rationality, while continuing to embrace precisely stated assumptions that produce a constrained optimization problem. A less “scientific,” and in our … Continue reading →

Following in the footsteps of the Economic Society of Australia, which last year instituted a biennial medal for the best Australian economist under the age of 40 (and gave the inaugural prize to Joshua Gans), the Italians have decided to … Continue reading →

My oped today is on bulls, bears and efficient markets. Full text over the fold.

Joshua Gans has recently proposed that bank account numbers should be portable, just like mobile phone numbers. I was initially sceptical, but his FAQ neatly addressed most of the concerns that I had. (See also a writeup in the Canberra … Continue reading →

Bo Cowgill, Justin Wolfers and Eric Zitzewitz have a new paper out, looking at Google’s internal prediction markets. NYT report here. Paper here. (HT: Chris Masse)

Thinking about placing a bet on the Melbourne Cup tomorrow? If so, you can expect to lose money. But if you want to lose less (in a probabalistic sense), then you should bet on short-odds horses rather than longshots. According … Continue reading →

Last week, Gummo Trotsky wrote a feisty post, criticising the intervention of economists into the question of the impact of mobile phone usage on accident rates. More recently, commenter whyisitso on Andrew Norton’s blog asked economist Harry Clarke how he presumed … Continue reading →

Surfing past LSE economist Tim Besley’s website, I came across a rather neat paper on the cost of UK MPs, which some enterprising political scientist could easily replicate for Australia. Working or Shirking? A Closer Look at MPs’ Expenses and … Continue reading →

Middle-aged and feeling glum? Don’t worry, you’re just like most people in developed countries. And when you get older, you’ll be as happy as when you were a young ‘un. Is Well-Being U-Shaped over the Life Cycle? David G. Blanchflower … Continue reading →

I’ve written before about the way in which research on the benefits of targeted high-impact early childhood intervention has been used to justify low-impact universal programs. Fortunately, it seems I’m not the only one who’s worried about this. From the … Continue reading →

For anyone curious about the kind of research that Australasian labour economists are doing, some of the papers and discussions from the recent Australasian Labour Econometrics Workshop in Wellington can be found here. There’s only a dozen papers, but I’d … Continue reading →

I have an oped in today’s AFR on the politics and economics of interest rates. Copy over the fold.

In a recent post, Dani Rodrik divides economists into first-best economists and second-best economists. Put simply, the former apply straightforward economic reasoning; the latter think more about market imperfections. To be precise: You can tell what kind of an economist … Continue reading →

Steven Levitt lists a number of ‘dangerous’ questions asked by Steven Pinker (eg. ‘Are suicide terrorists well-educated, mentally healthy and morally driven?’, ‘Is morality just a product of the evolution of our brains, with no inherent reality?’), and notes that … Continue reading →