How to Spot Advocacy Science: John Taylor Edition
When data looks too good to be true, it’s often not telling the entire story. An example of how to spot science that smacks of advocacy. Read More »
Tiger Woods Kicked Out of Principles of Economics
The newest version of the widely used Principles of Economics textbook will run without a Tiger Woods reference: “Previous editions of the textbook used an example entitled, ‘Should Tiger Woods Mow His Own Lawn?’ The sixth edition of the book replaced the previous example with one featuring quarterback Tom Brady…” Read More »
So Greg Mankiw Walks Into a Jury Box …
… and five minutes later, is sent home. You get the sense that maybe his feelings are a little hurt: the only thing the lawyers knew about him was his being a Harvard economics professor. What’s wrong with that? Read More »
Mankiw on Gas Taxes
From Greg Mankiw‘s blog, a link to an interesting speech he gave in which he discussed how differently economists and politicians view the ability of taxes to solve externalities (e.g., gasoline taxes to offset the congestion costs of driving). By the way, this is one that economists are right about. Read More »
More on the Missing Macroeconomists
On the bright side, that leaves a lot of running room for policy-oriented economists like me! On the dark side, that means that economists are often under the streetlight rather than closer to where their keys might be. Read More »
What Would an Independent I.R.S. Look Like?
The Harvard economist (and blogger) Greg Mankiw has written an excellent primer on the Federal Reserve’s power to influence the economy, making much of the the fact that the Fed is politically independent and can therefore afford to ignore public sentiment more than politicians can. His piece got me thinking about what a lot of Read More »
Conspiracy Theory of the Day
On his excellent blog, the Harvard economist Greg Mankiw (written about most recently here) posted a one-line item about a new ranking of economics blogs. The rankings are apparently determined by the number of incoming links for each blog. A commenter named Karl Smith had this to say: Freakonomics I believe is artificially high because Read More »
The Rich Pay Too Little in Taxes, Unless They Pay Too Much
Greg Mankiw, an energetic blogger (you may have heard of him? he teaches econ at Harvard? and used to advise President Bush?) wrote a super-compelling piece in Sunday’s New York Times, whose headline says it all: “Fair Taxes? Depends on What You Mean By Fair.” It is about taxing the rich, and begins by explaining Read More »
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