EconLog Archive
Economic Growth
The Internet and Productivity
Yesterday, having been lured downtown by an opportunity to gaze into Virginia Postrel’s eyes, I stumbled on Nobel Laureate Michael Spence giving a talk on the Internet and productivity. Some major points were: 1. Before the Internet, computing was a stand-alone affair. This severely limited the economic benefits of computers. 2. With the advent of .. MORE
Growth: Consequences
Growth and Displacement
Glenn (Instapundit) Reynolds links to a pessimistic treatment of economic growth by Michael Rogers. In my little part of the world that sample has included advertising agency people, a television executive, two doctors, a lawyer, a retail stockbroker, a building contractor and several business and editorial folks in magazine publishing. None of them was predicting .. MORE
Price Controls
Rent Control’s Sad History
How has rent control worked in New York City? Exactly as textbooks would have predicted, according to this essay by William Tucker in the New York Post. During the 1920s, builders put up nearly 100,000 new apartment units a year. Today we’re lucky to get 5,000. He points out that rent control leads to a .. MORE
Economic Growth
Lurching toward Utopia?
Brad DeLong describes the 20th century as “slouching towards utopia.” He views prospects for the next 20 years as even brighter. Today’s ongoing revolutions in biotechnology-and-information technology see technological progress of at least 15% per year in industries that make up 13% of total production — a direct leading-sector boost to economic growth of 2% .. MORE
Supply-side Economics
The Case for Tax Cuts
For an antidote to the interventionist Atlantic Monthly, see this open letter signed by a number of conservative economists. As a rule, government cannot create wealth or expand the economy. Only the private sector can do that. Government can, however, hinder economic growth through excessive taxes, high marginal tax rates, over-regulation, or unnecessary spending. Accordingly, .. MORE
Cross-country Comparisons
U.S. Best–or Worst?
In the Atlantic Monthly’s “State of the Union” issue, Ted Halstead says that for the American economy it is the best of times and the worst of times. We boast more patent applications than the entire European Union; almost three times as many Nobel laureates as Britain, our closest competitor; and more business start-ups per .. MORE
Information Goods, Intellectual Property
The Economics of Web Logs
EconLog is a Web Log, or Blog. My view is that some of the value of blogs comes from the collective filtering that they provide. I sketch a sort of economic model, in which everyone lives on a circle, with information needs similar to people who are closest on the circle. I live in the .. MORE
Books: Reviews and Suggested Readings
The Case for Teaching Economics
When asked by edge.org’s John Brockman what he would do if he were science advisor to the President, Steven Pinker’s reply included: Observers from our best science writers to Jay Leno are frequently appalled by the innumeracy, factual ignorance, and scientific illiteracy of typical Americans. This has implications in countless areas of the public and .. MORE