I was surprised to read that are willing to pay more when they pay by credit card. Apparently they actually have a higher willingness-to-pay if a credit card is used, relative to a cash payment. Freakonomics reports an instance where a beggar made more money than ever by just holding a sign which solicited credit …
Monthly Archive: March 2009
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2009/03/31/carrying-cash-is-good-for-your-wallet/
Mar
31
2009
On the proliferation of confusing labels
Ezra Klein channels his econ-geek and laments that price signals don’t tell the whole story these days: …we hope that prices include the relevant information. That’s been the goal of the environmental movement’s effort to build the cost of carbon emissions into the price of goods. Rather than asking each consumer to act as a …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2009/03/31/on-the-proliferation-of-confusing-labels/
Mar
31
2009
Legalising drugs
At Obama’s recent online town hall meeting the most popular question was whether he favoured legalising marijuana. There are plenty of persuasive arguments in favour: the revenues from sales tax and taking drugs out of the hands of gangs to name but two. It was suggested to Obama that taxation of marijuana might be a …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2009/03/31/legalising-drugs/
Mar
31
2009
John Key: big government conservatism?
Yesterday Nick Smith was thinking of taxing plastic bags. Today John Key threatened legislative intervention in an employment dispute. Now the government’s planning to spend $1.5b on telecommunications infrastructure. Now I’m not necessarily opposed to what they’re doing, but they do seem awfully interventionist for a right wing government. How do people that voted for …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2009/03/31/john-key-big-government-conservatism/
Mar
31
2009
The assault on homo-economicus
Interesting article proclaiming the end of “homo-economicus” (ht Economist’s View). This is an issue I care about a lot – so one day I’ll attempt to discuss the article in some detail. Today however, I’m just linking to the article and waiting to see what interesting comments you guys have about it It also reminds …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2009/03/31/the-assault-on-homo-economicus/
Mar
30
2009
Aligning tax rates (again…)
As a brief follow up to my previous post saying I’m glad that the government intends to align the top tax rates, this article I just read illustrates why I think it is stupid having different top tax rates. I particularily liked the reference to “dopey politicians”
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2009/03/30/aligning-tax-rates-again/
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