TVHE

This article made my day. I am also picking Spain to win the world cup, but I am heavily biased since my mother is Spanish. It is good to know that my profression has my back on this one though:)

So if the economists are right on this one we should expect to see Torres pulling this pose a few times on his way to winning the Golden Boot:)

Hot off the press from NBER, I was particularily interested in one of the main conclusions from the abstract:

Results from a rudimentary instrumental variables strategy and accounting for whether sex is immediately preceded by alcohol use suggest that binge drinking directly leads to risky sex. Some binge drinking-induced promiscuity seems to occur among students, especially males, involved in long-term relationships

I could have told you that without doing any econometrics!

Note: I have read nothing but the abstract so can’t comment on the actual econometrics carried out!

As recently reported, Avatar now holds the title of highest grossing film of all time.

Furthermore, the film has grossed over $800 million more than Hollywood’s previous blockbuster, 2008′s The Dark Knight.

Given that the themes and story quality of both films was equally awful, the only explanation (in my opinion at least) is that the piracy level of Avatar must be significantly lower than that of The Dark Night. The explanation for this I believe lies in that fact that one film was presented in 3D, while the other was not.

Thus, as the lay pirater is without 3D technology, has Hollywood inadvertently found a (short-term) solution to it’s declining revenue problem: making films in 3D?

From mouse on the rates blog comes this awesome quote:

It looks like Infometrics have been Smoking some “Green Shoots”.

Given I work at Infometrics, this quote is going to make its way onto my wall.  Bloody brilliant

An excellent cartoon from Mike Moreu:

The main thing for me is the question of “what is the social benefit”.  In part education increases the human capital of the individual, which is something that the individual should pay for, in another part education can be consumption (which the individual should pay for) and in a final part some types of education also benefit other people – which is where government subsidies come in.

I think there are many night courses we can identify as not having this social benefit – and so the government shouldn’t pay for them.  I don’t know if this is the test the government is applying, but it is the one they should be applying.

Hence, I think Mike’s comic here is spot on – when a course only has private consumption and investment value it should be the individuals choice to do it and responsibility to pay for it.

Given concerns about future retirement funding, I thought that this cartoon from the excellent Basic Instructions site hit on some important issues:

Earlier we discussed the urban regeneration project.  Now it appears that the project requires a bailout (ht Greg Mankiw):

In preparation for Mother’s Day on Sunday it is important to see what mum’s think about economics.

Over at www.postcardsfromyomomma.com we get to find out (ht Kids prefer cheese via Marginal Revolution)

Backstory: After I got a D on my economics exam.

Honey, econ is for boring and ugly people. You shouldn’t be in that class, you’re too pretty and creative. I’m sick of these hard classes. Next semester sign up for gym classes.

Boring? Ugly? Not creative? I don’t like where this mum is going …

In the face of increasingly uncertain economic times, the latest trend in France is for workers unhappy with their company’s position on labour to boss-nap,. Boss-napping entails workers disappointed with redundancies or payouts taking their bosses hostage as a bargaining tool! Recent kidnappings have involved 3M France’s industrial director and Sony France’s CEO and HR director.

Unfortunately it seems that the tactic is working, with 3M France’s industrial director being released after signing a deal which offered more favourable treatment for the 110 employees who faced losing their jobs. I’m not sure of the validity of such a contract made under duress over there – I doubt it would stand up here – but hey, they do things differently in France.

One of the more interesting ideas to come out of the jobs summit is a cycleway across the whole country, I find this comment on the stuff article to be particularly insightful:)

If you’re looking for ideas with tourist potential, I think a hydroslide the length of NZ has much more potential than a boring old cycle-way… If I was a foreign tourist looking for a travel destination with a difference, I think hydroslide is a better seller than cycle-way.

Also, imagine going over Cook Strait in a hydroslide. You could get out and play with the dolphins. You wouldn’t be able to do that if you had a big metal bike with you.