Policy Wise

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!Philip Bowring argues that high oil subsidies in Asian countries have helped increased the demand for oil by shielding consumers from real prices,
All this is widely known. What is not talked about is the impact that these subsidies are [...]

In a hard-hitting article, Devesh Kapoor argues that the World Bank should stop bankrolling countries like India which consistently perform low on education and public health,

In India’s case, the state’s inability to discharge this most basic obligation to its citizens in education and health, even as it [...]

By any yardstick, primary education is a fundamental right while higher education is a privilege. While a case could be made that higher education is beneficial to the society at large, primary education must be a greater priority. It is an illustration of India’s governance failure that exactly the opposite is true in India. As [...]

In a very interesting article, Joel Waldfogel discusses how markets can fail for the same reason democracy often does: tyranny of numbers.
John Stuart Mill pointed out that voting gives rise to a tyranny of the majority. If we vote on what color shirts to make—or whether to make wide or narrow shoes—then the majority gets [...]

Finally, a sensible decision.
The Centre is planning to set up Higher Education Loan Guarantee Authority (HELGA) to help needy students meet university and college education expenses.
The proposal to set up a HELGA was discussed at the recent meeting of full Planning Commission headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
[...]

An interesting new paper by Professor Charles Courtemanache argues just that,
A causal relationship between gasoline prices and obesity is possible through mechanisms of increased exercise and decreased eating in restaurants. I use a fixed effects model to explore whether this theory has empirical support, finding that an additional $1 in real gasoline prices would reduce [...]

In a very interesting piece, economists Gary Becker and Kevin M Murphy argue that inequality can have a positive effects if it can create an incentive to tackle its root cause: rising payoff of college education.
Why is the earnings gap widening? Because the demand for educated and other skilled persons is growing. That is [...]

Or at least the American corporates. A very interesting report in The New York Times details how the largest American corporates are increasingly growing outside America–both through exports and off shore subsidies, and how it is changing the game fo American workers and investors.
The charge offshore seems certain to continue because chief executives want to [...]

Harvard economist Greg Mankiw has a very interesting take on whether the tax code is ”fair”
The C.B.O.?s most recent calculations of federal tax rates show a highly progressive system. (The numbers are based on 2004 data, but the tax code has not changed much since then.) The poorest fifth of the population, with average annual [...]

I have wondered previously, in the context of global warming, about how energy efficiency and carbon cutting measures might be of economic benefit. This Economist article talks about an interesting study undertaken by Vattenfall, a Swedish power utility, to quantify the economic costs of various emission control measures. (via)

The measures below the horizontal [...]