Archive for category: Other

I’ll admit a bias here – my middle name is Francis, so no doubt I am being overtly generous to his comments when I discussed them on Rates Blog last week 😉 .  Or potentially I’m am being harsh, because I am particularly unhappy that I ended stuck with a middle name I didn’t particularly want.

All kidding aside, the way different economists reacted to the Pope’s comments was fascinating for me – and also helped to reinforce the idea that often when we discuss things as economists, it can be hard to hide our normative assumptions.  As I pointed out here, I was raised with a fairly significant Catholic upbringing – and in the context of what I remember being told about when I was young his comments were not terribly strong.  I felt he was making some statements that were factually wrong, but it was on the basis that those within the Church actually believe in a more equitable distribution of wealth (even if it is significantly less wealth).

These normative value judgments about the distribution of income run past economics – economics is a descriptive discipline that allows us to fairly represent the trade-offs, not to determine what trade-off is right.  However, as an individual I would also note that the normative value judgments of the Catholic Church are hardly going to be representative of society as a whole – as a result, we do not need to say that the Pope is wrong with what he is saying in order to disagree with him.

However, as the end of my Rates Blog piece does point out, factually his two main “testable changes in society” are completely false.  Make of that what you will.

All links via Marginal Revolution – all things I want to comment on, but do not have the time.  View this as a sort of saving space!

• A site focused on ‘fixing up undergrad economics‘.  This essay was worth reading.  However, looking at their target I am not sure it is undergrad they are necessarily wanting to change …
• Service sector work, namely household staff, is booming and so are wages.  Just what you would expect given the change in the distribution of income.  If this is indicative of, say, falling scarcity in manufacturing this is one of the ways that the wealth from such a change gets distributed – we see prices (wages) change in this manner.  Interpreting this is difficult.
• Altruistic behaviour as a preference for people to think they are helping – rather than a value over the outcomes of those in need.
• A US inequality thinktank.  I wonder if this will build on the work of the GINI project at all – (there are some good papers on that site, although use with care).
• A point on restructuring the social sciences which is commonly accepted.   However, the first sentence is a non-sequitur, and even with improving tools and analysis I would point out what we are targeting is unobservable and this is an important limitation to keep in mind.
• Hausmann discuss tacit knowledge.  Good.
• Tyler Cowen discusses a guaranteed minimum income.
• Changing income distribution among lawyers.  Reminds me of this book by Robert Frank.