An argument for reducing government controls. This essay is an edited excerpt; the original was presented in 1963 at Swarthmore College, as part of a dialogue with Paul A. Samuelson of MIT.
Author: George J. Stigler | Source: Chicago Booth | Subjects: Economics | Economy, Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy
Trickle-down economics suggests that tax cuts for wealthy citizens energize ailing economies, as recipients of the cuts use their windfalls to hire workers. And conventional wisdom among policy makers and economists contends that the main beneficiaries of corporate tax breaks are workers, who see wages increase.
But some research suggests that if you want to create jobs, it’s better to cut taxes for the bottom 90 … [ Read more ]
Authors: Juan Carlos Suárez Serrato, Owen Zidar | Source: Chicago Booth (August 30, 2016) | Subjects: Economics | Economy, Politics & Public Policy
University of Chicago economists Kerwin Kofi Charles and Erik Hurst… along with Nikolai Roussanov of the University of Pennsylvania… found… insight into the economic differences between racial groups… [that] challenges common assumptions about luxury. Conspicuous consumption, this research suggests, is not an unambiguous signal of personal affluence. It’s a sign of belonging to a relatively poor group. Visible luxury thus serves less to establish … [ Read more ]
Author: Virginia Postrel | Source: The Atlantic (July2008) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Culture, Demographics, Economics | Economy, Excerpts
Financial bubbles are like epidemics— and we should treat them both the same way.
Author: Robert J. Shiller | Source: The Atlantic (July2008) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Economics | Economy, Excerpts
Public anxiety over “excessive” consumer debt has a long, and misguided, history.
Author: Virginia Postrel | Source: The Atlantic (November2008) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Economics | Economy, Excerpts
Why asset bubbles are a part of the human condition that regulation can’t cure.
Author: Virginia Postrel | Source: The Atlantic (December2008) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Culture, Economics | Economy, Excerpts, Psychology | Behavior, Sociology | Anthropology
Because complex goods and services require much planning and coordination, management (even though it is only indirectly productive) adds a great deal of value. And managers as a class capture much of this value as pay. This makes the question of who gets to be a manager extremely consequential.
[…]
Middle managers, able to plan and coordinate production independently of elite-executive control, shared not just the … [ Read more ]
Author: Daniel Markovits | Source: The Atlantic (February2020) | Subjects: Economics | Economy, Excerpts, Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy
The value flows from corporations to households through eight different pathways. If you take a dollar of revenue that the average corporation generates, 25 cents of that flows through as labor income: wages, salaries, and other benefits to employees. Seven cents of that dollar goes to capital income, meaning dividends, share buybacks, and interest payments to debtholders. Six cents goes to investment—earnings that are retained … [ Read more ]
Authors: Clarisse Magnin-Mallez, Michael Birshan, Sean Brown | Source: McKinsey Quarterly (November 12, 2021) | Subjects: Business, Economics | Economy, Excerpts
By the close of the 1990s the United States had become more unequal than at any other time since the dawn of the New Deal—indeed, it was the most unequal society in the advanced democratic world. The top 20 percent of households earned 56 percent of the nation’s income and commanded an astonishing 83 percent of the nation’s wealth. Even more striking, the top one … [ Read more ]
Author: Ray Boshara | Source: The Atlantic (January2003) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Economics | Economy, Excerpts, Politics & Public Policy
Jim Clifton, chief executive of Gallup Inc., has a robust theory about entrepreneurialism and economic recovery.
Authors: Art Kleiner, Jim Clifton | Source: strategy+business (September 4, 2018) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Economics | Economy, Excerpts, Immigration
When looking at artificial intelligence from the perspective of economics, we ask the same, single question that we ask with any technology: What does it reduce the cost of? Economists are good at taking the fun and wizardry out of technology and leaving us with this dry but illuminating question. The answer reveals why AI is so important relative to many other exciting technologies. AI … [ Read more ]
Author: Ajay Agrawal | Source: McKinsey Quarterly (April2018) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Economics | Economy, Excerpts, Information, IT | Technology
A sympathetic critic issues a wake-up call for an America mired in groupthink and blind to its own shortcomings.
Author: Kishore Mahbubani | Source: The Wilson Quarterly (Spring2009) | Subjects: America, Articles & Links, Economics | Economy, Excerpts, International
America’s enduring love affair with big spending is fetching up against some unromantic realities. But a lifelong saver assures us that there are worse fates than socking it away for a rainy day.
Author: Daniel Akst | Source: The Wilson Quarterly (Summer2009) | Subjects: America, Articles & Links, Consumerism, Economics | Economy, Excerpts, Life & Society
Nick Schulz on the economy’s animal spirits.
Author: Nick Schulz | Source: The Wilson Quarterly (Summer2009) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Economics | Economy, Excerpts
We need go-go capitalism to afford a generous welfare state, and people won’t support go-go capitalism without a safety net. “Socialists” and Republicans forget different parts of this lesson.
Author: Will Wilkinson | Source: Vox (August 16, 2018) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Economics | Economy, Excerpts, Politics & Public Policy
What would a sustainable, universally beneficial economy look like? “Like a doughnut,” says Oxford economist Kate Raworth. In an eye-opening talk, she explains how we can move countries out of the hole—where people are falling short on life’s essentials—and create regenerative, distributive economies that work within the planet’s ecological limits.
Author: Kate Raworth | Source: TED (April2018) | Subjects: Audio, Economics | Economy, Environment | Sustainability, Politics & Public Policy
It’s been said that the four most expensive words in the world are: ‘This time it’s different.’
[…]
One of the things that happens in economic good times – a very clear lesson from history which is repeatedly ignored – is that money gets too cheap. Too much credit enters the system and there is too much money looking for investment opportunities. […] it is an iron … [ Read more ]
Author: John Lanchester | Source: London Review of Books (July 5, 2018) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Economics | Economy, Excerpts, Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy
One things been made clear by the housing crisis: not everyone should own their own home. Renting has its merits.
Source: The Wilson Quarterly (Summer2008) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Economics | Economy, Excerpts, Politics & Public Policy
You may be happy to learn that even though they are a political nightmare to pull off, U.S. tax overhauls have happened on a schedule — like clockwork, and the timer happens to go off again next year. Given that history and necessity are about to collide, Washington Post reporter T.R. Reid got curious about what tried-and-true solutions America could implement to make that next … [ Read more ]
Author: T.R. Reid | Source: Knolwedge@Wharton (September 8, 2017) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Economics | Economy, Excerpts, Politics & Public Policy, Taxation
Kate Raworth, a senior research associate at Oxford University and senior associate at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, wants to challenge the old ways of thinking about economics and develop sustainable new patterns for economic growth. In her book, Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist, Raworth encourages careful consideration of measurements beyond the standard gross domestic product metric. Thoughtful economic … [ Read more ]
Author: Kate Raworth | Source: Knolwedge@Wharton (June 28, 2017) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Economics | Economy, Excerpts