Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
This quarter I am a Teacher’s Assistant in a Law and Economics class at UCSD. In one of the lectures I learned about economists’ favorite judge: Justice Learned Hand. Hand is most famous for his rule for determining negligence in the U.S. v. Carroll Towing case. Legally, negligence occurs when 1) the defendant has a…
Below are some quotations from Gary Becker and Richard Posner’s debate on the Bush healthcare plan. Becker: “Since under present tax law, medical expenses has to exceed 71/2 % of a family’s taxable income before this spending begins to be tax deductible, it is very hard to get any tax benefits with individual health insurance.…
The Center for Global Development has an interesting measure of how much twenty one first world countries are helping their counterparts in the developing world. The measure is named the Commitment to Development Index (CDI). The index ranks each country the basis of seven categories: aid, trade, investment, migration, the environment, security and technology. More…
For researchers who are planning on presenting research posters in the near future, Jane Miller (2007) has an excellent capacity-building article in this month’s edition of the Health Services Research (HSR) journal. Miller’s advice covers all the major facets of the poster presentation: poster design, concise phrasing of statistical methodologies, the narrative to accompany the…
The latest oxymoron to come across my desk is ‘Libertarian Paternalism.’ Richard Thalar and Cass Sunstein (2003) claim that people often make choices that are not in their best interest. The authors “…emphasize the possibility that in some cases individuals make inferior choices, choices that they would change if they had complete information, unlimited cognitive…
For Labor Economists, the Economist magazine has an interesting story (“The world of work“) of the Manpower corporation. Manpower is a global corporation with their headquarters located in my hometown of Milwaukee. If you look at the Fortune 500 list, Manpower can be found at number 136. Below is an excerpt from the beginning of…
If you are are working towards a PhD in Economics—like myself—you may be interested in what the job market has in store for you when you graduate. If that is the case, you should check out an excellent article by John Cawley titled ‘A guide (and advice) for economists on the U.S. Junior Academic Job…
Many politicians and economists worry over the growing wage inequality which has arisen in the last few decades in the United States. On Wednesday, the New York Times published a story on this very topic (“…Paychecks“); Greg Mankiw also commented on the subject as well. Statistics show that real wages grew 30% for those in…
At the beginning of the new year, one often wishes their friends and family for a happy and healthy year. But how does one find happiness? Is this an entirely individualistic experience or are there generalizations that can help people lead a happy life? Many people assume that economists only care about money. This is…
In the Economist’s December 9th issue, the magazine reviews (“The wealth of nations…“) a World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER) effort to measure how personal wealth (i.e.: financial assets, real estate, consumer durables, livestock) was distributed throughout the world. If you have just over $2000 in net assets to your name, you can be…