Labor

April 16, 2015

The Government Websites We Most Like (or Hate) to Visit

Website traffic can tell us the information we need from government and some clues about the federal budget.

April 13, 2015

A New Way to Rank the Worst Diseases

While death rates are a seemingly easy way to assess healthcare spending, other perspectives like DALYs could be better when we consider the tradeoffs.

March 27, 2015

The Dangerous Side of Economics

Because he revised his country's inaccurate deficit and received Eurostat approval, Greece's chief statistician might be prosecuted for "breach of faith."

March 19, 2015

Six Ways to Make Government Better

One of many examples in Peter Schuck's new book, the Social Security program shows how government can be successful and also why it "fails so often."

February 26, 2015

Tradeoffs and Marriage: Like a Horse and Carriage

As the pill, education and employment opportunities changed the value of women as wives, the tradeoffs that relate to being married have also changed.

February 24, 2015

The Vaccine Benefits That No One Talks About

With better school attendance and learning, and then higher work productivity, the positive externalities of childhood vaccination have an economic impact.

February 20, 2015

Part 2: What To Do When More People Are Old

Facing an aging population and more entitlements, countries that are encouraging more births to expand the labor force might be creating a bigger problem.

February 19, 2015

Part 1: What To Do When More People Are Old

As population shifts, developed nations will have redistribution decisions as the proportion of the non-working aged and the young need more labor income.

February 13, 2015

Pondering the Bunker Hill Theory of Inflation

As the source of monetary policy, the Federal Reserve has to decide if interest rates should rise when inflation is low but a jobs recovery has begun.

February 9, 2015

One Reason We Can’t Believe in Innate Talent

Limiting potential economic growth, the myth of innate talent in disciplines like philosophy diminishes the pool of female and Afro-American human capital.

January 27, 2015

The Reason It Can Be Tough to Cross the Street

Called the American Dream, the income mobility that lifts a child beyond a parent's poverty can depend on a community's characteristics.

January 20, 2015

How Chocolate Chip Cookies Explain Why We Save Less

Explained by behavioral economics, we save relatively little for retirement because of intertemporal selfishness and seeing our future selves as strangers.