Brad DeLong has been chronicling (here and here) the right-wing attack on Gregory Mankiw, appointed to replace Glenn Hubard at CEA. Max Sawicky reposts a very sensible letter Makiw wrote two years ago to the New York Times, proposing higher gasoline taxes in lieu of stiffer gasoline economy regulations.
Objectively, there’s nothing very exciting in the letter, which could be the answer to an exam in a first course in public economics or policy analysis, but in it Mankiw (1) acknowledges that market results sometimes need to be tweaked and (2) says the T-word. Maybe GWB has decided that some adult supervision wouldn’t be a bad idea after all.
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
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