Results for “subramanian” 19 found
Assorted links
1. Relative Irish bond yields, read the comments also, more on Ireland, and more on Greek banks.
2. Is China’s dominance a sure thing? (pdf, and where does that seven percent growth assumption come from anyway?)
3. Is oil constraining economic growth? And Richard Posner as pessimist.
4. Han Solo markets in everything (“The Empire will compensate you if he melts”)
Assorted links
1. A politically incorrect Indian economics professor who teaches summer school at Harvard; here is Wikipedia.
2. Arbitrage! A lottery that can be beaten.
4. An excellent Interfluidity post on how we thought we were wealthier than we were, and why it matters.
5. Scott Sumner’s culture report.
6. What does the debt deal mean for health care? And winners and losers in the deal.
New Blog: Private Development
Tim Harford, who recently guest blogged on Marginal Revolution, is now blogging regularly at a new project of the World Bank, The private sector development blog. The blog also features Pablo Halkyard who was "born in Brazil …raised in the Himalayas, grew up in Washington, studied in Lima, has a British passport,
though claims to be Chilean." An ideal pair to write on development!
Here is a post from Tim.
[Regarding] Nancy Birdsall, Dani Rodrik and Arvind Subramanian’s piece from July/August Foreign Affairs (now syndicated to the New York Times).
It does sprawl a bit but there are more useful ideas in there than in a
bookshelf full of the worthy stuff we development types produce. For
instance:For
every leader who demands a bribe, there is usually a multinational
company or a Western official offering to pay it. For every pile of
illicit wealth, there is usually a European or American financial
institution providing a safe haven for the spoils.So:
…categorize
certain regimes as corrupt or "odious." Companies that deal with such
regimes would risk losing their claims to repayment if later on a
lawful government decided to default on the debt passed down by its
unlawful predecessor.Also:
Even
small relaxations of work-visa restrictions generate large income gains
for workers from poor countries (as well as for the world economy).
What is especially appealing is that the gains in income go directly to
the workers, rather than through imperfect distribution channels (as
with trade in goods) or through governments (as with aid).
All Oil to the People!
In an economy based on labor, leviathan government faces an inherent, albeit weak, constraint – tax and regulate too much and you will kill the goose that lays the golden eggs (or the goose will run away). But in an economy based on oil the goose can’t run away and is almost impossible to kill. As a result, natural resource based economies tend to be corrupt, war-stricken, and slow growing. After 35 years and some 350 billion dollars in oil revenues the people of Nigeria, for example, have had no increase in per-capita GNP.
Iraq is another case in point, which is why it’s crucial that we not squander the opportunity to create new institutions for getting oil wealth away from governments and into the hands of the people. Norway and Alaska distribute revenue from “stabilization funds” but these appear not to be very effective, especially in countries that begin with weak institutions. Economists Xavier Sala-i-Martin and Arvind Subramanian argue in favor of direct payments of revenues to citizens but I think Vernon Smith, our colleague and recent Nobel prize winner, offers the best approach – distribute shares, real ownership, in the oil producing lands to every citizen.
Aside from the benefits to the Iraqi’s can you imagine what a great public relations boost this would be to the United States? In one swoop, we would credibly demonstrate to the Muslim world that the war was not about our rapacity, provide for a thriving domestic economy in Iraq, and lay the foundations for a stable democracy.