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I can’t agree with Matt Kahn’s snark at Santa Monica for its attempt to measure some indicators of quality of life. What economists know how to measure is interesting. But it’s not exhaustive. Real estate prices can provide some sort of measure of quality-of-life as evaluated by people with money. But of course someone looking [...]
Archive for the ‘Microeconomics and policy analysis’ Category
January 11th, 2013
Category: Drug Policy, Microeconomics and policy analysis
When someone makes an argument or does a study that has a policy implication you dislike, it’s natural to attack the argument or the study to show either that it’s wrong on its own terms or that it doesn’t support the policy inference. (Of course, the argument might be right and the inference valid so [...]
January 8th, 2013
Category: Drug Policy, Microeconomics and policy analysis
The more ignorance, the more confidence.
January 8th, 2013
Kevin Drum responds to comments: the evidence is solid, but we need more science and a real benefit-cost analysis.
August 23rd, 2012
Category: Drug Policy, Microeconomics and policy analysis
Just because a bunch of smart economists agree on something doesn’t make it true. Especially about drug policy.
August 1st, 2012
Category: Microeconomics and policy analysis
A seat in a crowded committee hearing room is unlike space on a crowded freeway.
June 13th, 2012
You don’t have to be an altruist to earn like an Episcopalian and vote like a Puerto Rican; you just need to understand that, at the margin, a dollar spent on public goods gives you, personally, more benefit than a dollar spent on private consumption.
January 25th, 2012
Category: Drug Policy, Microeconomics and policy analysis
UCLA public policy students have solved an apparently insoluble problem: how to regulate and tax at the state level something that remains a federal felony.