Category Archives: economics

Pearlstein Looks for a Fed Bailout

If financial markets are frothy for a while and then revert to sensible levels
but don’t overshoot – then does that constitute a fully-blown
financial crisis?
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Is This a Liquidity Crisis or an Insolvency Crisis?

Telling the difference is always more of an art than a science. And from my point of view, a lot of what Roubini considers to be insolvency is reallly “just” a liquidity problem.
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When Competition Increases Sales

You’re in a market and a competitor arrives. Should you be worried? Not always.
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Measuring Home Preferences

Would you rather have a 4,000-square-foot house in a neighborhood of 6,000-square-foot McMansions, or a 3,000-square-foot home in a zone of 2,000-square-foot bungalows?
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Bruce Wagner Explicates the Hedonic Treadmill

It can be hard to define the hedonic
treadmill
in easy-to-understand terms.
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When GMU Economists Spar

The wonderful thing about having half a department blogging is that sometimes these discussions spill over onto the web, for all to enjoy.
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Economics Anonymous

Economists blogging I can
easily understand; economists blogging anonymously is harder.
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The Denver Bancrofts Play the Ultimatum Game

There’s a famous experiment in experimental economics called the Ultimatum
Game
:
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On the Importance of Grad Students

Is it possible for experimental economists to do first-rate work without grad students?
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Why Sports Gambling Should Be Legalized

It’s always good to see Justin Wolfers get national exposure,
and he has a
great piece
on the op-ed page of the NYT today, about the NBA betting scandal.
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Vernon Smith to Work on Californian Public Policy

I can see why Smith and his team would jump
at the chance to leave their ivory tower and actually build something big in
the real world.
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Overcoming Bias in Crowdsourcing

Aaron Naparstek reports
that "WNYC’s Brian Lehrer wants to know how many
SUV’s there are on your block."
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Bill Gross Joins the Billionaires-for-Tax-Hikes Club

Add billionaire Bill Gross, of Pimco, to the list of rich
men who want to raise taxes on the rich.
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More Details Emerge on GMU Economics Upheaval

Midas Oracle has more
details
on the news
that most of GMU’s Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science (ICES), led
by Nobel laureate Vernon Smith, is moving to California.
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GMU’s Other Star Professor Leaves

To lose one star economics professor to a minor-league competitor could be considered a misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness.
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Vernon Smith Leaves GMU; Bloggers Silent

One might almost think that a don’t-blog-this edict had gone out, either explicitly or implicitly.
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When Governments Buy Companies

Most foreign takeovers do not pose any kind of national-security problem at all.
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Give Your Money Away

The rich use economics – or, more to the point, economists – to delude themselves that they shouldn’t give their money away.
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Repugnant Markets

Blogger Tim Harford got blogger
Virginia
Postrel
, blogger Robin
Hanson
, and a few non-bloggers such as the Bishop of Swindon to all talk
to him for a fascinating BBC radio documentary
on repugnant markets
. Go read the transcript:
it’s great stuff.
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The Economics of Tour De France Breakaways

Andrew Leonard finds
a great piece of microeconomic analysis in
the sports pages
, of all places, from the NYT’s Edward Wyatt:
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Blowing Bubbles

Both Shiller and Leonhardt conclude the same thing: that stocks are expensive.
Which is a bit weird, considering that, relative to everything else, they certainly
seem as though they’re actually
rather cheap
.
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A Brief History of Chinese Industrial Policy

The most impressive economic success story of the past 30 years has been the
astonishing resurgence of China, which is likely to become the world’s third-largest
economy
this year.
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The Ethics of Markets

Steve Waldman continues
the debate
about short-selling
by looking at markets in ethical terms:
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No Sympathy for Short Sellers

Steve Waldman unleashes
a heartfelt cry
in the face of uncaring markets – a cry for the short
seller, a breed among which he counts himself.
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Why Enormous Personal Debt Means a More Vibrant Economy

Chris Dillow finds
a silver lining
to the ever-increasing amounts of leverage bidding up asset
prices around the world.
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