With a three-day weekend coming up, and a Rugby World Cup final, I published an economist’s guide to drinking responsibly in the Dom last week. You can read it here. What are my tips? So what tips do I have when it comes to drinking? I have already mentioned only taking out a small amount …
Category Archive: Behavioural economics
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2011/10/21/a-guide-to-drinking-responsibly/
Apr
05
2011
Beauty and brains
It is well known that beautiful people earn more, which goes some way to explaining Matt Nolan’s success in his stage career. What is apparently more difficult to understand is why they earn more. A paper tries to split out two effects: productivity and discrimination. For instance, …lecturers who are viewed as better looking receive …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2011/04/05/beauty-and-brains/
Mar
14
2011
Battle of the Working Groups
We’ve had the reports back from a few expert working groups now and what was pointed out to me about the tax report, compared to the savings report, is that it had entirely different tax policy recommendations. The Tax Working Group was at pains to align our taxes such that they did not distort peoples’ …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2011/03/14/battle-of-the-working-groups/
Feb
28
2011
On pricing and altruism
The aftermath of the Christchurch earthquake has seen much of New Zealand pulling together to help out affected residents who are in need. It has also seen a scarcity of many essential items as supermarkets close and water is switched off. In particular, queues at petrol stations have been huge and that has prompted Eric …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2011/02/28/on-pricing-and-altruism/
Feb
11
2011
Commitment and the gym
Everyone I know says they want to spend more time at the gym – myself included. However, as an economist I’ve learnt to look past what people say and look at what they actually do. In essence, people really just wish that a previous version of themselves (them in the past) had gone to the …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2011/02/11/commitment-and-the-gym/
Nov
18
2010
Economists and Facebook events
Yes, this is how a general economist analyses social situations: An invitation is an option that can be exercised at any time before the date of the party. The people who did not respond immediately are waiting to decide whether to exercise the option. If she’s a true friend then this is because she has …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2010/11/18/economists-and-facebook-events/
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