What I’m Reading
A few articles that have caught my fancy over recent weeks.
- Will 65% of school kids end up in a job that hasn’t been invented yet?
- What Wikileaks and News of the World have in common
- Google’s self drive cars (NYT, Atlantic)
- Do ‘No Excuses’ schools perform better?
- Do school uniforms help grades and teacher retention?
- Do higher stipends encourage EU parliamentarians to attend?
- The IPA attacks Tony Abbott’s protectionist tendencies (and Saul Eslake’s ‘I’m not a protectionist, but…’)
- Understanding the suicide statistics
- Would People Behave Differently If They Better Understood Social Security? (combines randomisation and behavioural public finance – what could be better?)
- When Dutch people win lotto, their neighbours buy a better car
- New reviews on randomised experiments generally , with firms, and even in internet dating
- Why we need a National Disability Insurance Scheme
- A special issue of the Australian Economic Review looks at funding of public and private schools, and minerals resource rent taxation
- What economists know about corruption in developing countries
- Cash on delivery aid (2010, but I only just stumbled across it) and product development partnerships for development
- Are political orientations genetically transmitted? (2005, but – embarrassingly – new to me) (HT: Tony Shields)
- Do economic beliefs explain rising imprisonment?
- The cost of increased security since 2001
- Are beautiful people happier?
- How does discrimination vary over the economic cycle?
- The impact of foreclosure on mental health
- How much does foreign aid spending reduce insurgent attacks?
- The era when CEO pay fell
- PerCapita thinks the cost of living may not be rising so fast after all
- What happens to students’ grades when stricter antidepressant warnings are put on medication?
- A thoughtful Parliamentary Library analysis finds little relationship between IR regulation and productivity
- Does the RBA care more about inflation or growth?
- Tom Nelson and Tristan Cooke from Humans in Design redesign Westpac’s mortgage statement (part II)
School uniforms may improve attendance and teacher performance, but I am not sure that society benefits from the huge diversity and unique features of school uniform designs in Australia. The major supplier of uniforms Beare and Ley (Lowes) http://www.beareandley.com.au/online-brochure is able to charge premium prices (rents) by encouraging schools to require a pocket logo (for example), which gives monopoly power in the market for a individual schools uniform. Generic uniforms could be much cheaper and just as effective.
Reading this I am immediately thought, Andrew Leigh, so this might be one to add to the list…
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2011/09/Berg.htm