Whales to Wood, Wood to Coal/Oil- What's Next? Earth's systems revolutions.... Spend the time to watch the video lecture by Daniel Nocera at M.I.T. In 1845, the Dietz Company of New York introduced the sperm oil lantern, which nearly wiped out some whale species. A decade or so later, Dietz began to manufacture lamps using other oils, and gas lighting…
Category Archives Economics
Staying at School Ain’t Silly. Andrew Leigh - Nicholas Gruen draws my attention to a piece on school completion by CIS researcher Peter Saunders (based on a longer paper here) [Broken Link - see below], who argues: Three-quarters of students currently stay to year 12, and most of them benefit from higher earnings and better job prospects as a result.…
Structurally, this has been coming for a while and I can see some value in this if it is done correctly. There are dangers however, most notably in setting a price hurdle that will stop many from undertaking the very skills path they need because the risk/reward equation of deferred loans in this sector will be based on a lower…
Do you have to be anti-change to be pro-business? A few months ago, I heard an interview with one of the leading metal baseball bat manufacturers. They were lobbying hard against regulations that would require little league players to use wood bats. Today, Chris point us to this story about emissions. The car makers continue to lobby hard, or…
Working it Out. Do you think that women do more total work (market and household) than men? If so, then the good news is that you’re in the company of most economists, including those from elite universities. The bad news is, you’re wrong. Total Work, Gender and Social Norms Michael Burda, Daniel S. Hamermesh, Philippe Weil Using time-diary data from…
Labour Force, Australia. Unemployment rate for March 2007 decreases to 4.5% [Australian Bureau of Statistics]
Shell Settles With Europe on Overstated Oil Reserves. Shell agreed to pay about $450 million to help resolve legal disputes stemming from its overstatement of oil reserves. By G. THOMAS SIMS. [NYT > Business]
Property price rise pushes farm debt higher. Australian farm debt has reached an all time high, but the drought is not entirely to blame. [ABC News: Business Stories]
This is re-produced from Andrew Leigh's WebSite. Among the most interesting debates in economics today is the dispute between Jeffrey Sachs and William Easterly over how best to help the world’s poor. The discussion is interesting not only because it concerns the most important question in all of economics, but also because Sachs and Easterly happen to be exceptionally good…