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 …
Category Archive: Law and Economics
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/
Oct 14 2008
Agnitio Finance: Coming soon
With the announcement of deposit insurance by the government for all our dodgy finance companies, being an economist who understands the concept of moral hazard (although in this case it would actually be adverse selection given that I would enter into the contract with government with the intent of exploiting an information asymmetry), I thought …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2008/10/14/agnitio-finance-coming-soon/
Oct 10 2008
Warehouse Extra is gone : Part 2
For those of you don’t read stuff.co.nz while they should be working, there are some really interesting tidbits on the latest article about the Warehouse pahsing out the extra concept. It expected an annualised pre-tax improvement in trading earnings of about $9 million. i.e. the extra concept has been hemorrhaging money! Mr Morrice said it …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2008/10/10/warehouse-extra-is-gone-part-2/
Oct 09 2008
Warehouse Extra is Gone!
One of the longer takeover sagas appears to have ended with the warehouse having announced its decision to end the warehouse extra format. This will effectively clear the way for either of the big two supermarkets to take over the warehouse. This is because the commerce commission is of the opinion that the warehouse would …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2008/10/09/warehouse-extra-is-gone/
Oct 07 2008
Law and Order: An Economics (sunk cost) Perspective
A raging debate is going on over at Colin Espiner’s blog on National’s new law and order policy. Given that people are making lots of arguments on both sides, I thought it might be worthwhile laying out an analytical framework for how an Economist might view the justice system. I’m not going to go into …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2008/10/07/law-and-order-an-economics-sunk-cost-perspective/
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