Category Archives: Setting Economic Priorities

Slowing Medical Innovation

Scott W. Atlas has the bad news. The CEO of one of the largest health-care companies in America recently told me that the device tax his company paid last year exceeded his company’s entire R&D budget. Already a long list … Continue reading

Posted in Economics of Health Care, Setting Economic Priorities | 5 Comments

Government Accounting

Jason Delisle and Jason Richwine write, the government’s official method for estimating cost is incomplete. It fails to incorporate the cost of the market risk associated with expecting future loan repayments. So-called “fair-value accounting,” an accounting method favored by the … Continue reading

Posted in government debt crisis, Setting Economic Priorities | 1 Comment

Scott Sumner on a Basic Income

He writes, The problem with simple solutions is that poor people are just like everyone else–they’re complicated. And they have complicated problems. That is why you do not want to try to solve poverty in a nation of 300 million … Continue reading

Posted in Scott Sumner is Coherent, Setting Economic Priorities | 5 Comments

The Case for Replacing the FDA, Continued

Beth Simone Noveck writes, A study completed by the Boston Consulting Group points to a significant rise in the number of drugs and complex devices approved in the EU long before the United States. As devices get more complex, the … Continue reading

Posted in Economics of Health Care, Setting Economic Priorities | 1 Comment

Joshua Gans on Apple Pay

He writes, This is why I think the resolution for the identification challenge is more significant. Last year, with the iPhone 5s, Apple finally got fingerprint recognition right. Last week I actually had to use a iPhone 5c for a … Continue reading

Posted in business economics, Internet, Setting Economic Priorities | 10 Comments

I Wish I Knew More About This

From Technology Review. Heimerl’s innovation comes in a gray box roughly the size of a microwave oven. It has solar panels on the outside to power cellular equipment inside, along with the software for management functions like billing and analytics. … Continue reading

Posted in business economics, Setting Economic Priorities | 4 Comments

Health Policy Proposals

From a RAND paper. The first five options would decrease costs and risks of inventing new products or obtaining regulatory approval for products that would advance our two policy goals. 1. enabling more creativity in funding basic science 2. offering … Continue reading

Posted in Economics of Health Care, Setting Economic Priorities, Timothy Taylor is my Favorite Blogger | 2 Comments

A Sentence to Ponder

From an article on the decline of risk-taking and creativity in scientific research funding. The average age to receive NIH research grants has gone from 38 in 1980 to 51 today.

Posted in Setting Economic Priorities | 1 Comment

Spectrum Price Discrimination Using Zero-rated Apps

The Washington Post reports, Apps and Web sites that don’t count against the users’ data plan are popping up both in the United States and abroad, often under names like Wikipedia Zero or Facebook Zero. Pointer from Tyler Cowen. If … Continue reading

Posted in Information Goods, Setting Economic Priorities, Tyler Cowen is my Favorite Blogger | 5 Comments

A Classic Paper on Spectrum Property Rights

From Arthur S. DeVany and others. One possible way to take explicit account of the unpredictable variations in field strength is to devise a stochastic definition for the spectrum-use property rights. For example, an operator could be permitted to exceed … Continue reading

Posted in Setting Economic Priorities | 4 Comments