Via Marginal Revolution we have seen this post from Steve Landsburg. So what happens if the government takes Mr. Kendrick’s $84 million away? Answer: A bunch of zeros and ones get shifted around on bank computers. Mr. Kendrick goes right on pushing his cars around. And nothing else has changed. Unless, of course, the government …
Monthly Archive: April 2011
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2011/04/21/a-good-illustration-of-tax-incidence/
Apr
21
2011
Financial stability, the crisis, and counterfactuals
In an interesting post on macro-blog, two things are mentioned towards the end: Specifically, the pre-2008 consensus argued that monetary policy should follow a ‘rule’ based only on output gaps and inflation, but a few dissenters thought that credit aggregates deserved to be watched carefully and incorporated into monetary policy. The influence of the credit …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2011/04/21/financial-stability-the-crisis-and-counterfactuals/
Apr
20
2011
Black markets, crime, and costs
Via Facebook I’ve been informed that our Australian friends have added an interesting interpretation to the costs of crime syndicates. “Every dollar stolen through organised crime activity is a dollar that cannot be spent on education, health or any number of services,” O’Connor said. Now on the face of it this statement is patently ridiculous …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2011/04/20/black-markets-crime-and-costs/
Apr
19
2011
GST up, income tax down: Both happened remember
Blah blah blah government is to blame for increasing GST and hurting families struggling to put food on the table. This is coming out constantly. It is a load of crud. GST went up, and income taxes were cut by an amount that implied that pretty much EVERYONE had greater real disposable income following both …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2011/04/19/gst-up-income-tax-down-both-happened-remember/
Apr
15
2011
Is economic theory inherently pro-market?
I often get told that I must be a crazy free-marketeer because I’m an economist, as if there is something inherently pro-market about economic theory. So when I was reading an article in the JPE today it was refreshing to come across this: The question whether – and why – markets may perform better than …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2011/04/15/is-economic-theory-inherently-pro-market/
Apr
11
2011
In defence of the “low wage advantage call”
I don’t like politics, and I get a peverse pleasure from attacking things that political parties say – what can I say, I’m human. However, I can’t say I agree with the attacks on Bill English’s comment that NZ has a comparative advantage over Australia because labour is cheaper. He was talking about this in …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2011/04/11/in-defence-of-the-low-wage-advantage-call/
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