Monthly Archives: October 2006
What to do with halibut
My wife and I are extremely keen cooks and love to entertain. Presently we’ve been having numerous friends over prior to Baby Boot’s arrival and of course the challenge is to keep it interesting and varied. So, Friday night we … Continue reading
Education spending – how much?
The Times reported last week how the Education Select Committee criticised Gordon Brown for pledging to raise the level of spending on state school students to match that of students in private schools. The story makes the very valid point … Continue reading
How to finance drug development
The news today that AstraZeneca failed to meet phase III trials for its stroke drug NXY-059 has prompted Tim Worstall to ask opponents of drug patents If AstraZeneca is not allowed to make fat profits from those drugs that do … Continue reading
Unusual preferences v madness?
Bryan Caplan has written a thought provoking paper building on Thomas Szasz‘s work to argue that most mental illness can be seen as unusual preferences rather than having a medical or pathological basis. We should not, he says, be surprised … Continue reading
On your marks, get set, go home
Will Wilkinson criticises the happiness movement. Crucially, there is no limit to the possible forms of excellence. So, while the number of positions on any single dimension of status may be fixed, there is no reason why dimensions of status … Continue reading
Society of Real Economists
I’m not sure if I’m in. I don’t have a problem with the first two requirements, but to say that motivations and intentions are irrelevant is a bit too far for me. This is equivalent to saying any choice from … Continue reading
A plea for Liberalism
There’s not much I’d disagree with generally here, but I don’t understand the point about rebuilding the manufacturing base via investment in alternative energy sources. My problem is that the policy aim can become confused if stated like this. What’s … Continue reading
Option value or mispredicted utility?
I’m often struck by how our purchasing behaviour appears inefficient. There are many instances where we appear to either mispredict the utility we would derive from a product, or are apparently attributing a high option value to owning the product. … Continue reading
Market Distortion
A few weeks ago, my wife and I visited a nursery for our expected child. It’s one of several in the area but the only one with opening times that are conducive to both mine and my wife’s working hours. … Continue reading
A second economics Nobel?
The Nobel Peace Prize was won by Muhammed Yunus of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. The Bank pioneered the use of microcredit. Amazingly, the story in the Times reports that 96% of the borrowers are women and 98% of the money … Continue reading