There has been a bit of talk recently about abolishing the promotion and relegation system in the English Premier League, mainly coming from the Foreign owners of Premier League clubs. A couple of quotes from this article sum up the argument, which is really about investor certainty: a growing cartel of owners believe the Premier …
Category Archive: Law and Economics
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2011/10/19/banning-relegation-from-the-premier-league-more-investment-certainty-less-excitement/
Jan
13
2010
Means testing fines: economic efficiency, or unjust policy.
As recently reported, European nations are increasingly pegging speeding fines to income levels, in an attempt to standardise punishment for such infringements. The intuition is simple: a $100 fine to a person of wealth in excess of a billion dollars is trivial. Clearly, there is no (or at the least little) incentive to curb one’s behaviour. …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2010/01/13/means-testing-fines-economic-efficiency-or-unjust-policy/
Jun
10
2009
Pablo and Goliath
Pablo Soto, the author of popular peer-to-peer file-sharing software, is being sued for LOTS by the recording industry. Their case is that he broke the law by facilitating distribution of copyright protected material. While I understand the reasons they’re going after him, I can’t understand how finding him guilty would be a good outcome.
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2009/06/10/pablo-and-goliath/
Apr
15
2009
The cost of green cars
A report in the NYT says that while driving smaller and lighter cars saves fuel, “downsizing and down-weighting is also associated with an increase in deaths on the highway,” said Adrian Lund, the institute’s president. “It’s a big effect — it’s not small,” he said The test done was to crash a little car into …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2009/04/15/the-cost-of-green-cars/
Apr
08
2009
Show us ya pimples!
Brad Taylor doesn’t think that the government should be installing acne-revealing lighting to ward off teenage hoodlums. In the UK they’re installing special lights that highlight acne in areas where teenagers congregate to get drunk, intimidate people and write graffiti all over the walls. Apparently it’s been very successful at dispersing the crowds! So crowds …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2009/04/08/show-us-ya-pimples/
Mar
26
2009
Kneejerk reactions aren’t always the best
The American public/politicians swelled with outrage at the reports of AIG paying bonuses recently. Puffed up with anger, Congress decided to implement ad hoc measures to eliminate the bonuses. Was it a good idea? Well, in retrospect it seems ill-informed and badly judged, as Megan McArdle details: [T]he people who actually lost the money have, …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2009/03/26/kneejerk-reactions-arent-always-the-best/
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