Monthly Archives: November 2016

Joel Mokyr Interviewed

He says, It isn’t just that China doesn’t have an Industrial Revolution, it doesn’t have a Galileo or a Newton or a Descartes, people who announced that everything people did before them was wrong. That’s hard to do in any … Continue reading

Posted in books and book reviews, Growth Causes and Consequences | 1 Comment

And Again

Jason Richwine writes, Last year the Education Department announced that math and reading scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress had declined since 2013. Though the decline was small (and not much to worry about), the announcement ruined the … Continue reading

Posted in Economics of Education | 2 Comments

The Null Hypothesis Strikes Again

Stephen L. Morgan and Sol Bee Jung write, The results demonstrate that expenditures and related school inputs have very weak associations not only with test scores in the sophomore and senior years of high school but also with high school … Continue reading

Posted in Economics of Education, Timothy Taylor is my Favorite Blogger | 1 Comment

Conservatives in a Ghetto?

Megan McArdle writes, I’m not blaming liberals for the rise of the conservative-media ghetto. …There was certainly no liberal media conspiracy, just an iterative process controlled by no one: Being human, liberals naturally prefer the work of folks who agree … Continue reading

Posted in Politics | 14 Comments

Disincentive to Work

Two chapters from a forthcoming NBER volume. 1. Alan J. Auerbach and others: We conclude by addressing the question posed in this paper’s title, Is Uncle Sam Inducing the Elderly to Retire? Based on the work disincentives Uncle Sam imposes … Continue reading

Posted in Setting Economic Priorities | 3 Comments

The Affordable Housing Violins

A commenter writes, Somewhat apropos of this post, it would be interesting to read a response from Arnold, or a likeminded person, to the following: Kevin Erdmann Erdmann in turn links to this commentary from Treasury. Behind these statistics are … Continue reading

Posted in Housing and housing finance | 16 Comments

Let’s Eliminate “Culture” from Social Science (er, Disciplines)

Joel Mokyr, in his new book A Culture of Growth, says on p.8 Culture means various things to different people, and to begin, we need to clarify the concept and our use of it. Given the rather astonishing popularity of … Continue reading

Posted in books and book reviews, Economic education and methods | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Japan, Culture, and the Economy

A commenter asks, how do you view post-war Japan economy and society? I remember in the 1970s – 1980s the Japan Inc. being the ultimate economic machine and now today they look like a society of Grandpa Simpsons? The Japanese … Continue reading

Posted in culture, Growth Causes and Consequences | 6 Comments