Entries by Matt Nolan

Normative vs positive analysis of policy

March 31, 2014 /5 Comments/in , /by

“Normative” and “positive” economics are old terms, that get abused constantly, used out of context (largely by me), and make philosophers dislike economists.  This is cool and all – but I think the is-ought distinction still provides a useful perspective on considering policy.  So I thought I’d quickly flesh that out. A positive economic analysis […]

Some beautiful links

March 28, 2014 in , , /by

I am not around.  Over the next three weeks, there are a series of really rubbish auto-posts are coming up about “factor shares” – I normally write posts in advance, but it is unlikely I am going to add anything or move posts around to include new ones.  During that time I’ll be reading and […]

Discussion Tuesday

March 25, 2014 /2 Comments/in /by

Let us talk about New Zealand.  This is an important question, I hope you guys will give me all the answers 🙂 New Zealand is the type of country where taxes on land and taxes on capital are appropriate new policy tools Once again, remember that these are points for discussion – I am not […]

Economics, theory, and data

March 23, 2014 /6 Comments/in /by

This post was titled “Why data alone is not enough for economic inference”.  I was all prepared to write a post on the fact we need data and theory in order to do economic inference and create knowledge. I had links (*,*,*,*,*).  Then Noah Smith wrote this like really good post on the issue, so […]