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Category Archives: Economics
Review of Aden et al. (part 3 of 3)
In our previous two posts, we reviewed the main details of a proposed private law solution to Puerto Rico’s public debt crisis. (This proposed solution would not require any new legislation, and it appears in this working paper by Aden, … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Law
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A private law solution to PR’s public debt crisis (part 2 of 3)
In our previous post, we mentioned that three law students at Duke University (Aden, et al.) figured out a two-step solution to Puerto Rico’s public debt crisis, a simple and elegant solution that is already available to Puerto Rico under … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Law
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A proposed private law solution to Puerto Rico’s public debt crisis
Puerto Rico’s public debt is massive — around $70 billion and counting, but no one really knows for sure as the government of Puerto Rico does not follow uniform or transparent accounting rules. Since Puerto Rico is not authorized to … Continue reading
Posted in Current Affairs, Economics, Law
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Blueprints for “The Great Wall of Trump”
An engineer recently drew up a “quick design” (pictured below) of Donald Trump’s proposed USA-Mexico border wall. (You can read the full technical analysis of what it would take to build such a massive project here.) This particular design consists … Continue reading
Posted in Current Affairs, Economics, Law, Mathematics, Politics
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Why political pledges are generally worthless
Theory: Economists use the apt term “cheap talk” to refer to mere pledges or promises that are not backed up by credible threats. Generally speaking, a pledge, promise, or vow to do x is worthless when it is not backed up … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Law, Philosophy
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Is Puerto Rico underpopulated?
Here is a real-time example of people “voting with their feet.” We lived in Puerto Rico from 1993 and 2009, and we can tell you that Puerto Ricans are severely overtaxed by their government, regardless of which political party is … Continue reading
“Why don’t better movies cost more?”
This intriguing question was recently posed by economist Ashok Rao via Marginal Revolution. Personally, we have no idea, except perhaps “tradition”? So as a service to our friends and loyal readers, we are re-posting the following three blog posts on this puzzle: Why … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Economics
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Our favorite “economics of Christmas” tweets
It's a huge oversight that none of the academic articles about the deadweight loss of Christmas even mention wrapping presents. — Justin Wolfers (@JustinWolfers) December 25, 2015 An ethical Santa would refuse to ask boys and girls about their Christmas … Continue reading
Posted in Economics
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Welders vs. Philosophers (“The Marco Rubio Fallacy”)
“Welders make more [income] than philosophers. We need more welders and less philosophers.“–Marco Rubio (Nov. 10, 2012) In fairness to Marco Rubio, who we greatly admire, he is making a more general point about the merits of vocational education, but … Continue reading
Posted in Current Affairs, Economics, Politics
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The Economics of Internet Platforms
Question: What do all of these Internet platforms have in common? In the case of Uber, Alibaba, and Airbnb, these platforms create new markets by bringing together sellers and buyers … But what type of market is Facebook creating? (Hat … Continue reading
Posted in Economics
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prior probability 