Matt Nolan

Tweetpic of the day

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James sent me the following, I have nothing to add:

I’d also point out that Piketty has discussed claims of data mistakes here:

The key predictions did not rely on these perceived data errors in the first place – it is the framework for thinking about inequality that was of use, and which helped to create debate.  A debate that seems to have moved past his explanations, and looks like it will lead to a lot more research – which is choicetastic!

Matt Nolan

The rhetoric of restricting the choice of the poor

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Via Gareth Morgan on twitter I spotted the following post from the University of Otago Public Health blog.

The money quote:

They found that the biggest impact of a minimum price policy was on “harmful” drinkers in the lowest income quintile (7.6% reduction in alcohol), whereas the impact on harmful drinkers in the highest income quintile was modest (1%). Consumption fell by 1.6% among “responsible” drinkers in the lowest income quintile. That is, the impact is concentrated among low-income harmful drinkers.

Moreover, this Lancet paper found that “Individuals in the lowest socioeconomic group (living in routine or manual worker households and comprising 41·7% of the sample population) would accrue 81·8% of reductions in premature deaths and 87·1% of gains in terms of quality-adjusted life-years.” In the public health field, we seldom see policy packages that have such a notable impact on reducing health inequalities. [** Further comment at end].

The gains come from putting a minimum price of alcohol that prices the poor out from consumption.  Consumption that has a benefit – something that is ignored constantly.

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Matt Nolan

New Zealand’s labour market recovery in ‘ONE CHART’

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I hate one chart posts.  No that was too weak, I despise single chart posts.  But given that I am under the thumb of greater forces than myself (my thesis, my job) I have decided to do one.

So what is this chart that tells us about the NZ labour market recovery?  It is actually a chart neatly provided by Statistics New Zealand in their release of the labour market data:

Cheers Statistics New Zealand! (Note, initially the wrong graph had shown up, unemployment – it should be employment rates)

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Matt Nolan

Can physicists please look at a basic textbook before releasing these things

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FFS, this is probably the worst example of a physicist treating economists like idiots, and saying something both meaningless and already known, that I’ve seen for a while (via Marginal Revolution). Read more

Matt Nolan

Discussion Tuesday

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From Lew on Twitter:

Discuss!

Matt Nolan

Inward migration: A story of no-one wanting to leave

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I endorse this post by Aaron Schiff – go read it.

You will also notice in the above chart that over the past ten years the number of arrivals has been relatively steady with a slight upwards trend, while departures is more volatile. Thus temporary spikes in net migration seem to be caused more often by changes in the number of people leaving rather than arriving, although the recent spike has been caused by both sides of the equation.

Something I would note here is that, until recently, this has been largely a story of New Zealander’s coming home as well.  Finally:

We should celebrate because on the incoming side, skilled immigrants provide New Zealand with a significant free gift. Some other country has paid the cost of their birth, childcare, childhood medical care, education, etc. They turn up in New Zealand effectively bringing all that investment with them and this benefits the country. Sounds good to me.

Something I would note here – it is a strange contradiction complaining about a brain drain while bemoaning skilled migrants moving here.

Deep down we should be a little bit more careful thinking about both issues.  People are moving as they see it as being in the long-run interest of their family and their lives – in that way, why is it so hard for us to accept that NZer’s may want to spend some time overseas, and that non-NZ citizens may want to join our community?