The private provision of public goods
Here is a bizarre story, especially for traditional public finance economists. Public.Resource.Org takes non-copyrighted documents that the federal government charges the public for and puts them into the public domain. Not much is available now but the service wants to make available for free all of the millions of documents, videos and other material from National Technical Information Service. To build their library Public.Resource.Org are asking people who want a government document to buy it through their service. They will then make the document available to everyone else for free.
Public goods that the government charges for brought to you at P=MC by a private firm. We live in a great world.
Addendum: I was pleased to see that Hal Varian is on the board of directors.
What would Muhammad say about put-call parity?
Mahalanobis explains how Islamic mortgages are being created using put-call parity. Islamic finance expert Mahmoud El Gamal sums up the situation nicely:
…I have shown in detail how to synthesize a forward from salam and a credit facility characterized as murabaha or tawarruq, depending on preference and cost. From forwards, we can then synthesize everything. That is a theorem.
Surface computing
Check out this very cool new computer input device.
Tabarrok on CNBC – Not
I will be on CNBC’s Street Signs today around 2:20 talking about immigration. More later, after I find a tie.
Addendum: Found the tie, got canceled. What a pain.
Near Death Experiences and State-Space Consistency
Tyler (and Ryan) ask, Should near death experiences change your life? The answer is no. The reason, however, may surprise you. It’s not because NDEs are unimportant it’s because they are very important.
Recall that a rational choice-plan is time-consistent, you should not plan today to make choices for tomorrow when you know today that you will renege upon those choices tomorrow. Eating cake today because you will diet tomorrow is not a rational choice if you will not in fact diet tomorrow. Time-consistency does not require that you always follow through on today’s plans – new information arrives which may cause you to rationally change your plans – but it does require that you expect to follow through on today’s plans which means that if no new information arrives then you should follow through.
The same idea explains why if you are rational you should not change your life if you experience an NDE. NDEs are not new information. You know that you are mortal, right? You know that you could die today. You know that experiences like Ryan’s are not uncommon. Thus, if you are rational you should not change your life if you experience an NDE.
Do I advise, therefore, that Ryan get on with his life as before? No, not at all. My advice is not for Ryan, it’s for everyone else; Choosing rationally requires that you choose today so that if you have an NDE you will not change your life.
The fact that many people who have an NDE do change their lives is evidence that most people do not choose rationally. Thus the ways in which people who have had NDEs change their lives is important information for the rest of us who want to choose rationally.
Do you recall the secret to happiness offered by Gilbert, the one you almost certainly will not accept? It is to accept that your own anticipations of what you will do and feel if certain things occur is not as good a guide to what you will actually do and feel as are the actions and feelings of other people who actually have experienced those events. Thus, if near death experiences tend to make people more giving, caring and less fearful of change then this is how you should act today.
Long-time readers will know that I take the idea of reflective equilibrium quite seriously.
Are You a Good Liar?
Are you a good liar? Most people think that they are, but in reality there
are big differences in how well we can pull the wool over the eyes of others.
There is a very simple test that can help determine your ability to lie. Using
the first finger of your dominant hand, draw a capital letter Q on your
forehead.Some people draw the letter Q in such a way that they themselves can read it.
That is, they place the tail of the Q on the right-hand side of their forehead.
Other people draw the letter in a way that can be read by someone facing them,
with the tail of the Q on the left side of their forehead. This quick test
provides a rough measure of a concept known as "self-monitoring". High
self-monitors tend to draw the letter Q in a way in which it could be seen by
someone facing them. Low self-monitors tend to draw the letter Q in a way in
which it could be read by themselves.High self-monitors tend to be concerned with how other people see them. They
are happy being the centre of attention, can easily adapt their behaviour to
suit the situation in which they find themselves, and are skilled at
manipulating the way in which others see them. As a result, they tend to be good
at lying. In contrast, low self-monitors come across as being the "same person"
in different situations. Their behaviour is guided more by their inner feelings
and values, and they are less aware of their impact on those around them. They
also tend to lie less in life, and so not be so skilled at
deceit.
Long time readers will not be surprised to learn that I find it difficult to see things from other people’s perspective and thus, consistent with the theory, I am a lousy liar!
A Warning Sign in India
Mehta also reports "The offices themselves are sleek, modern, air-conditioned, with computers blinking and flashing. Only the building’s public areas are decrepit. Gaping holes mark the first floor where windows should be…"
The Big Donor Show
A 37-year-old woman suffering from an inoperable brain tumor wants to
donate a kidney before she dies and will choose the recipient from
among three contestants on Dutch national television, a TV network said
Tuesday, claiming it wants to highlight a crisis in organ donations.
From CNN. Hat tip to Ed Lopez at Division of Labor.
Guest Blogger: Bob Hormats
We are very pleased to have Bob Hormats guest blogging at MR this week. Bob is currently vice chairman of Goldman Sachs (International). Bob has extensive experience in finance and politics having served in the State
Department as assistant secretary of state for economic and business
affairs, ambassador and deputy U.S. trade representative, and senior deputy assistant secretary for economic and
business affairs, among other positions.
Bob’s latest book is The Price of Liberty: Paying for America’s Wars, a superb history of wartime fiscal policy and a warning that entitlement programs and war spending are pushing America towards fiscal catastrophe.
Welcome Bob!
Caplanianism
Will we one day see a Council of Economic Advisors able to veto legislation for being uneconomic? It seems unlikely but do not underestimate the influence of my friend Bryan Caplan whose The Myth of the Rational Voter flirts with putting limits on the vote-franchise and yet still manages to get a favorable review in the New York Times Magazine!
Nor is that all. An even more powerful demonstration of the spread of Caplanianism can be found here.
Spread the word – buy The Myth of the Rational Voter and go forth and multiply.
Tyler v. Alex: Guide to the Perplexed
Lately I’ve noticed that people are confusing posts from Tyler with posts from me. Here is a simple guide for the perplexed:
- References to a cymbalist/Dadaist/expressionist that you have never heard of. Tyler.
- References to Dog/Rush/Hayek (Salma). Alex
- A simple question with ten answers. Tyler.
- A complex question with one answer. Alex.
- You have no idea what the post means. Tyler.
- You know exactly what the post means and it makes you mad as hell. Alex.
How much of a jerk do you have to be to oppose immigration?
YouNotSneaky has a great post in which he calculates how big a "jerk" you have to be to oppose immigration. The answer – proven with considerable mathematical sophistication – is that the exact "jerk factor" depends on theta, the extent to which marginal utility diminishes with income. The results, which you are unlikely to see in the JPE, make me laugh (but note that others will be insulted) are graphed here. Read the whole thing for details on the calculations which do make a serious point.
Hat tip to Dani Rodrik.
Freedomain
My high school friend, Stefan Molyneux, is the host of a very successful daily podcast, Freedomain Radio! If you are interested in anarchism, atheism, Ayn Rand and mental health [insert joke here], check it out.
Alas, not from the Onion
Zimbabwe has won approval to lead the UN Commission on Sustainable Development.
Here are some previous posts on our new world leader on sustainable development: Zimbabwe 1, Zimbabwe 2, Zimbabwe 3, Zimbabwe 4.
Hat tip to Independent Sources.
Guest Blogger: Kevin Grier
We are delighted to have Kevin Grier guest blogging with us this week. Kevin is a pioneer in the political economy of macroeconomics. Kevin’s early work on political business cycles established that politicians do attempt to manipulate the economy via the money supply. Later, in a series of papers with Tony Caporale, Kevin showed that changes in the real interest rate can be explained via political regime shifts. My favorite paper of Kevin’s is Congressional
Influence on
Monetary Policy: An Empirical Test (JME 91, subs. req.) which is a great example of how to combine different types of evidence to convincing effect. But Kevin’s greatest contribution to economics? Well, I am to modest to say and no doubt Kevin is too embarrassed.
Kevin is also an expert on low-watt tube amplifiers, check it out here. Welcome Kevin!