Angus Maddison’s website contains a wealth of data, particularly on long-run and comparative economic growth. Such as this paper on European capitalism (using the US as a comparison) : The European economy would have been sounder with more flexible labour markets, less micro-meddling, and more expansionary macropolicy. I wonder if the greater ( Read more... )

Given that WorkChoices-killed-the-Howard Government is already the received wisdom*, labour market liberalisation may be dead for a generation. Still, failure is instructive, so it is worth (if only as an intellectual exercise) considering what we can learn from WorkChoices about how to do (and not to do) labour market liberalisation.

(1) Don’t ( Read more... )

Harvard has found a way to shorten the average length of Ph.Ds: For the last two years, the university has announced that for every five graduate students in years eight or higher of a Ph.D. program, the department would lose one admissions slot for a new doctoral student. The results were immediate: In numerous departments that had for years had ( Read more... )

In social science and humanities academe, and in much of the wider Left - even amongst those who would not describe themselves as any sort of Marxist - the base economic intuitions and presumptions are quasi-Marxian. Either because they were the only economics they have been directly exposed to or as pervasive contagion effect. The legacy of ( Read more... )

A former Titan ICBM base is on sale on eBay.

A 12-week bus trip from London to Sydney.

Calculating the richest Americans of all time (pdf) in inflation-adjusted terms. Where great wealth has come from has changed dramatically in the last 25 years (and college dropouts among the very rich are notably richer than college graduates).

A nice review ( Read more... )

While male virgins get better school grades but there is no difference for female virgins.

Stats made lots of fun while informing about what has really been happening with the developing world over the last 50 years. Via linkfrenzy.

Putin has had some success in stabilising Russia.

A case of a dying child, inappropriate risk management and the gatekeeper ( Read more... )

If architects worked like programmers… Via domesticmouse.

A seminar series on issues in political economy. A pithy post on the problems of Latin American development (and the rest of the developing world).

If small sums are involved, a study finds that the poor learn quicker than the wealthier how to maximise it.

Moving a book online to sell more. Via p_cat. ( Read more... )

Reviews of Tuscan milk on Amazon. (Yes, it means milk.)

Pharmaceutical vending machine.

The poor mobility of the French economy makes it easier to fund their health system.

Arguing technology has encouraged institutions-public and private- to get bigger.

About what happened to economic history in academe. More.

Putting energy trends in ( Read more... )

An excellent short post on institutional form in market society. (There are, in fact, quite a lot of labour-fun firms.)

The “Red” campaign seems to have involved far more being spent on advertising celebrities than has been raised for the cause itself. The Red campaign responds. Africa poses large moral dilemmasThe growth of US government as % ( Read more... )

Who gives to charity? The Anglosphere particularly … In the US, religious conservatives give more to charity than secular liberals.

About the preference for beauty: He showed that when candidates stood for election on more than one occasion, their chances of success rose simply when they used a more flattering photograph ( Read more... )