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This may not be Tyler’s thing, but I’d be interested in discussion of two increasingly common stories:
1) Some say: people who are unemployed for months/years lose their human capital, and therefore their employability. But don’t women return to the labor force all the time after several months/years out? And what if ALL the applicants for a job have huge gaps on their resume?
2) Some say: the rate of innovation in the US has declined, and this explains the lousy job/income trends, especially over the last decade. But how does this square with relatively strong productivity growth, especially since 1995?
Possible topics:
1) Your assessment of rising and falling economics departments (in terms of research productivity, prestige, etc)
2) Your assessment of skills/focus areas associated with success in the academic economists job market
Expand on your opinions about the Grenadan monetary policy addendum: “They also use the East Caribbean Dollar, which perhaps for them is not an optimum currency area. Should Grenada be pegging to the U.S. dollar?”
Does anybody have a theory about the length of questions during the Q&A sessions that follow lectures/talks? Is there a relationship between length of question and age, gender, status, place in queue? Why do some people make rambling statements disguised as “questions”? How can moderators avoid such abuse of the process (pleas to keep questions short don’t seem to have any effect)?
What’s your favorite Pierre Menard moment in the blogosphere? By “Pierre Menard Moment” I mean a situation in which a very similar post (purely Pierre Menard would imply an _identical_ post but I am not sure that happens) written by a second, different blogger has different interpretations and raises different issues.
To expand on what BK is requesting, what causes the size and frequency of supermarkets/groceries/bodegas in other countries to vary wildly? Or why aren’t there any more dedicated bakeries and butchers operating as there once were?
The U.S. Treasury needs to roll over roughly $3.5 trillion and borrown another $1.9 trillion over the next 12 months. That works out to about $100 billion per week ($60 billion rollover and $40 billion new borrowing).
With total U.S. savings at about $500 billion and China’s trade surplus around $250 billion, where will that money come from?
Will the Fed have to resume purchases of Treasury bonds?
Why should highways, roads, streets, and parking be government run and funded socialized transport systems, but railroads should be tax paying profit-seeking private owned and run systems charging whatever the market will bear?
Which nations have efficient, i.e. low cost for good outcomes, health care systems that meet the theory of conservative economists at Cato, Mises, AEI, et al think tanks?
Can a theory ever be a theory if it is never seen in the real world? Isn’t a theory with no real world examples just an unproven hypothesis about how the world works that provides no insight into the real world?
Is there any example that shows socialized roads and health care, which provide basic equal access to everyone, is not the best in terms of efficiency: maximum (economist) welfare for the lowest cost?
What would be your advice to young, motivated, unemployed Greeks (living in Greece)? Brush up on language skills and emigrate?
Why is there a market for micro-brewed beer? But not micro-brewed soda?
The economics of the Olympics (but not the question of the the benefits and costs to host cities). The IOC has a goal of maintaining reserves of $500 million, which seems like an excessive amount to me. The IOC does not allow athletes to advertise without Board approval; that is, unless they are appearing in ads for official sponsors, which was obvious if you watched the Games, which is benefits only those sponsors. Are they a Niskanen bureaucracy? Is corruption still enough of an issue that they want to maximize revenues to host cities and advertisers, and thus, committee members?
What are your favorite kosher (not kosher style) restaurants?
One frame through which I view global warming (the “issue”) is as a giant applied economics and politics R+D project aimed at improving our ability to identify and price (or rather, extinguish) externalities. Is it worth it?
I’m an undergrad senior taking my first graduate micro theory course, and am having serious trouble “believing” a lot this approach. It’s fine as a series of abstract math problems, but I can’t convince myself of its real world validity. Does this spell the end of my career as an economist, or is this sort of doubt common among people getting started in the field?
Why is that basketball is more egalitarian, if that’s the right word, than football? For instance, the NCAA basketball tournament is much more competitive than the BCS. Surely, equipment may play a part as to why that is the case, but that can’t explain everything. One time football equipment was rather spartan. One could argue the amount space needed to play is a role, but then everybody in the world plays soccer, which requires quite a bit of space.
Your thoughts on Free banking.
Your thoughts on post-Keynisanism.
As societies become really wealthy, doesn’t the natural rate of unemployment or underemployment rise? How does a really wealthy society decide who has to work? If benefits are high enough why would most people want to work?
Net Neutrality
What do you think is the least developed part of property rights/4th Amendment jurisprudence?
How do GMU libertarians rationalize getting their paychecks from the government?
How about (1) most GMU libertarians are not dogmatic and consider information to be a public good. (2) They are correcting an negative externality created by the government (AKA progressive intellectuals). It’s a second best solution, not a first best. (3) They might favor a different system, but since that isn’t an option, they’ll make do with what we currently have. E.g. I would prefer privatized Social Security, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to refuse to cash my Social Security checks. A progressive might prefer high taxes but that doesn’t mean he’s going to send an extra 5% of his paycheck to the government.
What do you think is the least developed part of property rights/4th Amendment jurisprudence?
patent reform — any thoughts from Tyler?
Everyone says the Chinese Yuan is “undervalued” vs. other things (usually the US Dollar). How do they know?
For bloggers/ journalists-Better to specialize in a narrow area of expertise (i.e. I don’t know-Uzbekistan immigration to Kazakhstan maybe) or a broad range of things (Eurasia)
I’d be interested in your take on the reported dramatic increase in econ PhD applications this year. Whats happening?!? Have you talked to any other departments about this?
Rob’s question about micro-brewed sodas gets a vote from me.
I like it when you post links to things that are merely interesting, like astrophysics. Ypu’ve got a great nose for this sort of thing.
How does tax incidence apply to the “terror tax” and the “piracy tax”? Who’s really paying for the oil that MEND diverts in Nigeria, the high security on the Saudi oil fields, and the ransoms that ship owners pay to pirates?
If the United States had been set up with two Presidents, one for domestic affairs and a different one for foreign affairs, would governing be easier, or would we just have twice as much bureacucracy?
When states are considering transportation projects where the federal government foots much of the bill for start-up costs, but not the on-going operating costs, what margin should the states be thinking along? If the marginal cost of a rider is zero, then fares ought to be zero, but taxpayer contributions toward costs can’t also be zero, can they? Should states consier the marginal rider, trip, daily operating cost?
Why have belts beaten out suspenders in the market for holding up men’s trousers?
Historically, a home mortgage was presumed to be a good thing, especially given the tax benefits of deductible interest. Any opinion on whether this still holds true going forward?
Your favorite short stories (or collections)
A friend remarked that on his trip to Cuba, the inclusion of modern buses imported from China had started to erode the charm of the vintage car culture we associate with the island. This is one factor, among many (including the possibility of the embargo being stopped), that made her travel to the island before it changed too much.
What other countries (or cities) are undergoing signficant change and will be presumably very different in a few years from now? Which ones would you travel to if you had the chance now before they underwent that change?
If, when you died, you could choose between heaven as described by any major religion, which heaven would you choose?
I would be curious to know what you consider the biggest flaw in the labor theory of value to be. Also, would you say that it is disproven, unnecessarily bulky, or simply marginalized?
Your thoughts on the effects of vitamin d deficiency / vitamin d supplementation.
Definitely Tflan’s topic. Do that one first.
Why, other than historical accident, do we have limits on the amount by which commodity futures can move in one session up or down, but no similar limits on other markets (as for example short sellers)? (Asked after reading Paulson’s memoir)
I want to hear about your take on the following short piece by Mark Pilgrim:
The pursuit of happiness
http://diveintomark.org/archives/2008/11/03/the-pursuit-of-happiness
Does having less stuff make people happier/better off? To what extent do you think this is true?
Another suggestion:
“Who are your heroes?”
Ditto on the bloggingheads with Gintis!
Or Steve Sailer.
Bubbles in everything.
If we define a bubble as (1) increasing percentage of income/GDP over time (2) higher percentage than comparable countries and (3) without easily demonstrable benefit — how many do we have in the US besides health care and education (housing no longer quite qualifies)?
How does a bubble pop when it’s not based on speculation but on subsidized consumption behavior (third parties paying for consumption of goods)?
Re: the early suggestion of subsidizing freeways but taxing railroads: Daniel Klein’s book on curb rights explains some of the key concepts in transportation economics.
Are small island nations that import 100% of their energy resources (like Grenada) likely to adopt alternative energy technologies and achieve energy independence?
Would large industrialized economies passing climate legislation help or hinder such countries, in the short/medium/long term?
Explore scenarios in which deflation and deflationary expectations are “good”, on-net, for an economy.
There are several states in the US which may not be able to pay their future pension obligations. The problem is magnified when you consider that people can move away from a state that uses taxes to remedy this profligacy. What would be the consequence of letting such a state default on its pension obligations? Answer in the context of the present day EU/Greece/Germany situation, and in light of the claim that monetary union is a key component of Germany’s predicament.
Or is my premise false: are there any states in the US that are likely to become Greece’s?
I would like to know the real effects if the federal government stopped collecting taxes and instead was allowed to print a limited specific % of GDP of the previous year in its place. Say a 8%, 12% and 16%.
I have a few questions:
-Over time are there disputes within the field of economics that are resolved? In the last 10-15 years have any disputes been resolved?
-What views on economics have you had in the past that have changed in the last few years (10 or so) and has the blogging world had any influence?
-What’s your most likely scenario with regards to US government deficit/debt in the next 50 years?
1. Is there any evidence of a difference between the reading patterns of readers of newspapers online and in paper? For example, does reading a paper paper mean more browsing, reading articles one might not otherwise if one were online, whereas on the internet one reads to find specific stories?
2. If you were Chancellor of the Exchequer, what would you do?
I know you’re not a Rawlsian, but if there were a veil of ignorance concerning your position in society, but you could choose which country to be born into, a) which would it have been at the time of your birth and b) where would it be now?
I am, of course, a loyal reader.
I’d like a behavioral economics explanation for shamelessness. It might start by analyzing how it can be that economists who failed utterly to predict the crisis feel (or at least show) no sense of feeling ashamed of themselves for their failure.
Your analysis of the AD/AS model. I know a version of it is in your textbook. Is it really a useful model?
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