Health care, unemployment, and gifts

Small businesses pay more than large firms for the same health care policies. A quarter of the uninsured are employees in firms smaller than 25 workers.

More, rising unemployment means less health care coverage.

The Game Theorist tells us that gift giving is a bad idea. I'm not sure he's taken all of the externalities into account, though.

Krugman tells us that the health care bill will lean liberal because the facts do. I didn't know facts played such a large part of politics.

HFT, education, pedigree, and health care

An interview about high frequency trading. Recently, I've been more and more interested in similar topics.

Does education hurt your real income or help it? Data can be tricky.

Tyler Cowen thinks about pedigree bias in economics. Economics professors in top schools are very likely to have come from top schools themselves.

SCSU Scholars talks about innovation in health care. I've mentioned this before--technological advances in health care are unlike others. The equipment hasn't gotten smaller or cheaper. There seems to be different incentives at play than economists typically assume. More, given two procedures that give similar results, a doctor will often choose the more expensive procedure, since he can charge more for it. Consumers, meanwhile, don't know their options.

Samuelson, Greece, fair trade, and academic journals.

A tribute to Samuelson, from an ex-coworker.

Rodrik uses Greece as a teaching tool for the world economy. Economic globalization, politcal democracy, and the nation-state: pick two. I wonder if the EU will be more careful in the future.

An Economist debate on fair trade. It's an interesting debate, but Bhagwati in particular never fails to impress in my opinion. I think the benefits of free trade are less clearly documented in the media, and public opinion (of developed states, especially) ends up mattering more than it should.

What kinds of articles get published in journals? Empirics seem to be winning the day. I thought people use to think academia was divorced from real life...

Historical GDP Growth v Top Marginal Tax Rates

How about this chart?

Should we raise the top marginal tax rate?

Is there a positive correlation between the top marginal tax rate and GDP growth? Cursory analysis says yes.

Also note that for over 60 non-consecutive years (70 years with an 8 year gap in the middle), the top marginal tax rate was over 50%.

Water, Google, Christianity, and Energy

A new chip can cleanse water to be suitable for drinking. The eight inches of these (postage stamp sized) chips can produce four gallons of water per hour, while using as much electricity as a light bulb. If these things become mass produced and affordable, that'll rock the developing world! What a news report to hear in the same week as World Water Day.

Google pessimists ask what the point was, while tech-savvy Googlers are unaffected. Can Google incite larger change?

These maps of Christianity make me think about how religious views intersect with political views.

How will traveling wave reactors affect the energy scene? On a side note, TED is pretty neat.

Job Advice, Saving Money, and the Planet

Jon Brooks gets a job! And this is how he did it. Job seeking advice is abundant this time of business cycle.

Also, remember that you need to save money for retirement. After you find a job, that's something you need to think about. That way, you can become the richest man in the world.

I can't say that I agree, but a couple of ecologists are worried about how our current economic model interacts with the world. I can't say I agree, but it's worth thinking about, certainly. Change isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Climate change, exchange rates, education, and new frontiers in economics

John Whitehead on climate change. The science hasn't been settled. Professor Whitehead doesn't go into this, but the consequences haven't been settled either.

Chavez is still trying to fix his economy, this time by playing with his fixed exchange rate. The blind lead the blind.

Tyler Cowen makes a partial list of over- and under-explored areas of economics. There are a lot of really interesting under-studied areas of economics.

Ed Glaeser looks at the link between GDP per capita and school enrollment in 1900. Education benefits seem to be very, very persistent.