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Request day
I hereby take requests for special topics to be covered. I make no promises, but here is your chance. As usual, weak monotonicity holds, meaning that a request can't lower your chance of coverage. Comments are open...
Posted by Tyler Cowen on February 27, 2007 at 07:34 AM in Web/Tech | Permalink
Comments
What are your thoughts on the new dynamic optimal public finance policy models being built and simulated? Will they yield any new insights applicable for the real world, or are they a fad?
Posted by: anon. at Feb 27, 2007 7:40:19 AM
prof. Cowen,
There is a best way to teach students that marginal cost curves slope up somewhere, when the commmom sense is that they are flat for practical purposes? Its difficult to reconcile that vision with the fact that firms don't change prices every time that they increase (decrease)production...
Posted by: rodrigo at Feb 27, 2007 8:07:44 AM
Latin American politics. Why do our politicians suck.
Posted by: dsVasques at Feb 27, 2007 8:17:31 AM
This is related to a recent post and something I've been thinking about a lot as I pack up my house to move:
Why do we buy books and videos? Doesn't it make much more sense to outsource their storage to libraries and video stores or services like Netflix?
Posted by: Ted Craig at Feb 27, 2007 8:24:55 AM
Should we refrain from consuming the cultural products of those producers who hold morally objectionable views, when our consumption of such products will benefit said producers?
I have in mind something like you going to see Mel Gibson's Apocalypto (though if that example doesn't fit the model for you, you can find your own example). The thinking in this particular case would be, why provide the monetary and expressive support to Gibson by seeing his movie, given that he seems to hold morally objectionable views? Sure, if you didn't see the movie, you wouldn't get the two or so hours of possible artistic enjoyment, but that is a small price to pay for doing what seems to be the right thing. Your thoughts?
Posted by: JW at Feb 27, 2007 8:26:16 AM
The idea is quite speculative, still it is interesting to have your opinion.
The question is on connection between IQ and economic growth
presented at this paper www.siue.edu/~garjone/JonesSchneApr.pdf and also somehow commented in http://www.rlynn.co.uk/pages/Richard-Lynn-and-Tatu-Vanhanen-IQ-and-Globa-Inequality.asp
specifically, as there are no developed approaches in neoclassic growth theories how to use more efficiently human capital ( measured in IQ ) which is part of TFP,the question is if politics of promotion more clever people to higher posts in companies and state bureaucracy can provide more growth .
There are observations: South Africa which has low average IQ of population and has relativity hight share of clever (OK, maybe historically, not genetically determined) whites among hight figures has relatively hight economic performances (one of the best in africa ), Singapore which had hight growth had also meritocratic policy to promote talented people. These facts could be somehow combined with Clark works and also mentioned article and book.
for me the question is important for the following reason. Russia has relatively clever population according to IQ tests ( thought only two ) mentioned in Lynn Vanhannen book. Still the country has quite mediocre economic performances ( and Lynn found high correlation between IQ and economic conditions).
This could be partly explained (if the mentioned link is true) that in USSR era the best positions were held not due to intellectual capabilities but due to support of Party (Communist Party), it is known that even after privatization the output per person did not grow. For that reason there might be the possibility to improve economic conditions now not only by using contemporary used economic regulations by just promotion of more clever people to higher positions.
It is just matter of fact that current economic elite is formed during very special 'privatization' when all the assets of USSR where sold for almost nothing, not in evolutionary competitive process . The quality of this elite is best described by local anecdotes on
'New Russians'.
Posted by: Sergey Kurdakov at Feb 27, 2007 8:32:36 AM
Basics
A series of posts on basic economic principles, I already mentioned inflation as an example. I realize this may not be what many of your readers expect, but it's got to be more interesting than the hightened sexuality of soccer enthusiasts
Posted by: Weldon MacDonald at Feb 27, 2007 8:37:03 AM
1. Your thoughts on programs/policies to encourage affordable housing.
2. Food prices in Mexico (especially in light of the recent corn/tortilla issue)
Posted by: LB at Feb 27, 2007 8:41:20 AM
I asked for this one last time, and I seem to be the only one interested, but here goes nothing...What is currency and what are the potential implications of a completely digital currency that could have unlimited meta information attached to it? [Some obvious implications would be tracking transactions and the government's ability to enforce taxes, etc., some more esoteric stuff would be attaching conditions much like covenants, say that a particular payment could only be used to buy products that were carbon neutral, possibly down the road having policy implications.]
Posted by: theCoach at Feb 27, 2007 8:44:38 AM
Another request would be to explore the potential effects of not only making cable tv a la carte, but also requiring that television content providers allow choice in how the consumer pays for the service - either an advertisement based system or a fee that would eliminate the commercials.
Additionally, require that the consumers be given a choice of types of advertisements they would be exposed to ( I could choose for example an advertisement-based model, but that I would not want to see ads for children's toys or cereal, and that I wanted to see no political ads).
Posted by: theCoach at Feb 27, 2007 8:49:40 AM
How'd you like Civilization? I just bought it and I can't beat it.
Posted by: Noumenon at Feb 27, 2007 8:51:12 AM
Pricing schemes for restaurants: a la carte, all you can eat, and by weight.
Why there is international variation in the frequency of each scheme?
Posted by: leo at Feb 27, 2007 8:53:01 AM
Explore the economics of the Tom Leykis model of human behavior: under a surprisingly broad set of conditions, women are more attracted to men who treat them poorly, don't spend money on them, etc., while nice guys finish last.
Posted by: mobile at Feb 27, 2007 8:55:35 AM
Tell us how "Knightian uncertainty can be made operational"...
Posted by: eric at Feb 27, 2007 8:56:35 AM
progressive taxation as price discimination
Posted by: fmb at Feb 27, 2007 8:59:14 AM
Relationship between age and productivity.
Posted by: Sarah at Feb 27, 2007 9:03:00 AM
If you do want to weigh all existing and future individuals’ welfare equally (i.e. people now and those individuals that 'will' come into existence) when doing an intergenerational CBA on certain investments and/or savings what discount rate should you use? In other words I am asking if there is a technical answer on what the discount rate should be if we have accepted a utilitarian normative argument about how to weigh current welfare against future welfare.
I am thinking of Stern's treatment CBA on global warming. As far as I understand it Stern's normative argument amounts, roughly, to the following:
1) A supposedly zero rate of time preference where 1% of consumption today should be valued as equal in welfare terms to 1% of consumption in the next generation. Following Stern being impartial about whose welfare is improved by a certain policy would requires us to forgo 1% of our consumption as an investment in future consumption if the benefit to the future generation would be anything > that 1% of what their consumption would have been without our investment. Thus zero discounting of future consumption is suppose to be the same things as a zero time preference for any particular generation’s welfare.
2) A very low amount of discounting because of the risk of extinction.
Let us assume that the non-identity problem is no problem (some plausible solutions exist), and that we are positive to a roughly utilitarian approach to assessing intergenerational justice (i.e. despite a host of other problems). Even given these assumptions 1) seems to be wrong. This is because people in the future are expected to be significantly richer that current people in terms of consumption and Stern’s approach does not discount for the declining marginal utility of increases in consumption levels. What would the discount rate be if we were to discount for the declining marginal utility of increases in consumption levels?
I am not an economist so I might have misunderstood Stern, but maybe there is still something to say about my question as it is formulated in the first paragraph.
Posted by: aaron_m at Feb 27, 2007 9:03:22 AM
Africa. What are your long term predictions? Which policies should rich countries adopt? Which will they adopt? What can I do?
Posted by: josh at Feb 27, 2007 9:04:36 AM
china
Posted by: qingdao at Feb 27, 2007 9:23:15 AM
Anything on prospect theory.
Posted by: JoshK at Feb 27, 2007 9:24:31 AM
1) Is the university tenure system compatible with eliminating mandatory retirement?
2) Why is Europe becoming ever more secular?
Posted by: Carl at Feb 27, 2007 9:35:26 AM
When does Italy leave the EC? What are the likely costs of doing so?
When is it likely to be "brass tacks time" regarding US healthcare
expenditures? When do the costs get so great, that "something has to give?"
Are there any economic costs for nations to have more than one language?
Just about all americans can speak with each other, and that must aid
commerce...not so with many other nations.
Posted by: glenn at Feb 27, 2007 9:44:33 AM
Your preferred policy towards unions.
Posted by: Johan Richter at Feb 27, 2007 9:46:35 AM
Mr. Cowen,
I am a Peace Corps Volunteer in El Salvador and was hoping you (or anyone
reading this comment) might be able to share some insight on the pros and
cons of dollarizing a country. The Salvadorans I speak with claim
that, “everything is more expensive since El Salvador changed to the US
dollar in 2001”. Now it seems like this cannot be wholly true.
For sure the transaction cost of receiving remesas has been reduced
(is the reduction significant to the individual receiving $200 a
month?), it will protect against volatile inflation, and eliminate any
double currency issues (how problematic is such an issue), but I
have little more understanding than that.
My goal is to have a better understanding on the issues at play so
I may share some insight with the people in my community and
the 140 other volunteers here in country. Any of your thoughts
or suggested reading is will be greatly appreciated.
Posted by: Andrew at Feb 27, 2007 9:49:39 AM
Whether the taxation of income should be replaced in part by the taxation of the use of carbon-based fuels.
Posted by: bjartur at Feb 27, 2007 9:54:52 AM
