How the World’s Happiest Countries Are Not Entirely Happy

A close look at how we identify the world’s happiest countries reveals that happiness ranks could be misleading.

What We Can Learn (About Money) From a LEGO

Like the Big Mac Index, when the Toy Zone tells us where LEGO prices are high and low, we can also compare currencies.

Why a Carbon Tax Proposal is Like Goldilocks

When we look at the world’s carbon taxes, as economists we can think of Arthur Pigou and correcting market failure.

A Short Tax (Form) Story

Occupying billions of hours and dollars, tax preparation in the United States could be much simpler if we just copied Estonia.

Why We Don’t Want To Be The World’s Happiest Country

Reading the 2022 World Happiness Report, I wonder whether its six variables are what we should use to rank happy countries.

Why Dads Refuse to Take Paternity Leave

Although new U.S. legislation, if passed, includes paid paternity leave, researchers say that much more is necessary for new dads to do it.

How Sweden Is Coping With Coronavirus

Different from its neighbor Denmark, Sweden’s pandemic policy emphasized voluntary guidelines rather than a mandatory lockdown.

Should We Be More Like Scandinavia?

Looking at Scandinavian taxes, we can see the tradeoffs that government provided healthcare, university tuition, parental leave, and elder care require.

More on the Mom Penalty

Whether we look at a cartoon on women’s “mental load” at home or a recent study on the gender pay gap in Denmark, the problem is the mommy penalty.

A Simple Tax Story

Thinking of tax reform, we can not only look at what we pay and how much, but also at simplifying taxes through pre-filled forms from the IRS.