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Free exchange Economics R.A. | WASHINGTON Understanding the process of decision making MARK THOMA directs us to an interesting piece on “identity economics” by George Akerlof and Rachel Kranton, who write: When we examine people’s decisions from the perspective of their identities and social norms, we get new answers to many different economic questions. Who [...]
Free exchange The American economy R.A. | WASHINGTON Should the Fed be more concerned? THE Federal Reserve has just released the minutes from its April meeting, which include the FOMC’s economic projections. A glance at their figures suggests that the Fed has grown more confident in the state of the American recovery. The 2010 growth [...]
Free exchange Inflation G.I. | WASHINGTON Downside price risk reasserts itself THE deflation meme is back. Today the Bureau of Labour Statistics reported that headline consumer prices fell in April, though they’re up 2.2% from a year ago. Excluding food and energy, core prices were flat and up just 0.9% from a year earlier, the [...]
Free exchange Management R.A. | WASHINGTON A look at CEO hiring practices I APPRECIATE the blunt honestly of this paper‘s title: Risk and the CEO market: Why do some large firms hire highly-paid, low-talent CEOs? Why indeed? The research is the work of Alex Edmans and Xavier Gabaix, and the abstract reads: This paper presents [...]
Free exchange Housing markets R.A. | WASHINGTON The burdensome supply of foreclosed homes Images: THE Mortgage Bankers Association has released its report on first quarter mortgage foreclosures, and the news isn’t that good: The seasonally adjusted delinquency rate increased for all loan types with the exception of FHA loans. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the [...]
Free exchange Inflation R.A. | WASHINGTON Consumer prices in America continue to drop Images: IT’S time once again for our monthly(ish) look at inflation data. Today, the Bureau of Labour Statistics released its latest consumer price data, which showed a seasonally-adjusted decline in headline prices of 0.1%. Here’s a look at the 12-month percentage change [...]
Seriously, it was a weird semester (or ‘is’, since it isn’t technically over yet). On the very bright side, my upper-division writing class was wonderful – I think this was the first time in thirteen years of teaching that every student in a class completed every major assignment (I’ll ignore a handful of minor, not-paper [...]
Free exchange The Economist R.A. | WASHINGTON A new hub for economics analysis TODAY, The Economist is launching its Economics channel page, conveniently located at www.economist.com/economics. The channel is your one-stop shop for all of The Economist‘s economics coverage, from the print edition and the web, including the best from our blogs, audio, video, and [...]
Free exchange Education R.A. | WASHINGTON College opens doors ADAM OZIMEK disagrees with my take on the value of college educations, and in particular that: …wage premiums indicate that markets are certainly interested in having a larger pool of university graduates from which to hire, and increasing that pool by shrinking the pool of non-graduates [...]
