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Orley Ashenfelter has been doing a series of interviews with labor and industrial relations economists. The most recent is “Myra Strober on women, work, and feminist economics” (November 6, 2023, Episode 19, audio and transcript available). The description of her early education and career has some great stories, although some of them have a high … Continue reading Interview with Myra Strober: Women and Work
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One remarkable shift during and after the pandemic recession was a remarkable rise in the US savings rate. This was was driven in part by the government spending programs enacted during the pandemic: the checks sent directly to households, the expansion of unemployment insurance, and the Paycheck Protection Program to help smaller businesses keep people … Continue reading How Fast Are Americans Drawing Down Their Pandemic Savings?
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All my life, I’ve been the kind of uncool person who wanted some space for serious things to be discussed seriously. And now there’s one more political debate coming up this week, this one among the non-Trump candidates for the Republican presidential nomination in the 2024 election, which is my excuse for this gripe about … Continue reading “Television Makes Impossible the Determination of Who is Better Than Whom”
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I have been the Managing Editor of the Journal of Economic Perspectives since the first issue in Summer 1987. The JEP is published by the American Economic Association, which decided a little more than a decade ago–to my delight–that the journal would be freely available online, from the current issue all the way back to the first issue. … Continue reading Fall 2023 Journal of Economic Perspectives Free Online
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Apparently minks are a possible vector for the spread of COVID-19. Thomas Peacock and Wendy S. Barclay write about the issue in “Mink farming poses risks for future viral pandemics” (PNAS, July 19, 2023). They write (citations omitted): Mink are highly susceptible to infection with several viruses that also infect humans. In late 2020, government … Continue reading Some Economics of Minks
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Some problems can wait a few years. A road is wearing out? You can patch it now, and fix it more thoroughly one of these years. But the learning loss experienced by K-12 students during the pandemic (for earlier discussions, see here and here) isn’t in the delayable category. The pandemic hit in February 2020. … Continue reading Pandemic Learning Loss: Why So Little Done About It?
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Certain aspects of China’s evolving population structure have been widely discussed. China’s fertility rates plummeted in the 1970s and have remained low since then, especially in the aftermath of the government’s “one-child policy.” There has been a saying in China about “six adults, one child,” illustrated by the idea of a child playing in a … Continue reading Cousins and Kin Networks in China’s Family Structure
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The per capita GDP for the combined 27 countries of the European Union (EU-27) is about 72% of the US level. On the other side, the average worker in EU countries puts in far fewer hours on the job than do American workers. For example, OECD data says that the average US worker put in … Continue reading Comparing EU-to-US Output Per Hour
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Here’s the case for imposing a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages: 1) Obesity is a major public health problem, through its effects on diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, asthma, certain cancers, and mental health; 2) Consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages is an outsized contributor to obesity; 3) Taxing sugar-sweetened beverages will raise the cost that consumers pay, and thus … Continue reading The Limited Effects of Taxes on Sugar-Sweetened Beverages
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Imagine a government spending program or a health or safety program, where one of the benefits is that over the population as a whole, it reduces some risk that people face and thus saves lives. Is the spending or regulation a good idea? Answering this question requires putting a monetary value on the benefits of … Continue reading Value of a Statistical Life (VSL): Time for an Update?
The post Value of a Statistical Life (VSL): Time for an Update? first appeared on Conversable Economist.

For many manufactured goods, the output can be produced in many different places–including other countries–and then shipped to where it is needed. Moreover, manufacturing jobs in industries around the world are being challenged by the rise of automation: in particular, high-tech industries like, say, semiconductor manufacturing, are extremely capital-intensive, with relatively few jobs. In comparison, … Continue reading Construction Jobs: A (Partial) Substitute for Manufacturing Jobs?
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The winds of public opinion and politics have been blowing toward de-globalization for a few years now, not just under the Biden and Trump administrations in the US, but in countries around the world. The complaints about globalization come in (at least) three categories: it’s bad for national security by strengthening geopolitical rivals and creating … Continue reading Globalizing to Protect National Security, the Poor, and the Environment
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The government antitrust enforcers have two institutional homes: the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission. The Biden administration team in both places has shown a strong desire to overturn antitrust law as it has evolved in 50 years or so, and to return to the earlier tradition. One … Continue reading Negative Reflections on the Positive Case for the New Proposed Merger Guidelines
The post Negative Reflections on the Positive Case for the New Proposed Merger Guidelines first appeared on Conversable Economist.

The homeless population can be loosely divided into three groups: the transient homeless who use a shelter once; the episodic homeless who return to the shelter repeatedly, but for brief periods; and the chronic homeless, who rely on homeless shelters for long periods. The chronic homeless are also much more likely to have issues with … Continue reading The Case for Housing First
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If the US economy had considerable intergenerational mobility–that is, if the children growing up in lower-income households had a reasonably good chance of ending up as adults in higher-income households, and conversely the children growing up in higher-income households had a reasonably good chance of ending up as adults in lower-income households–then I would be … Continue reading Evidence on Declining Intergenerational Mobility in the United States
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