The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design. – F.A. Hayek
Posted in incentives on Feb 23rd, 2011
A few weeks ago in class I was discussing what I refer to the, “you might as well do something worse” (i.e. the marginal cost equals zero) problem in deterrence. I am sure there is a fancy real name for it, but the simple idea is this: whenever you have a maximum penalty for some [...]
Posted in Environment, incentives on Dec 10th, 2010
But rather a perfectly sighted man putting on blinders. The following e-mail exchange could just as well have happened in your hometown. I encourage you to do the same. Here is a simple conversation I had with the City of Rochester regarding its curbside recycling programs. It’s not like the city does not provide lots [...]
Posted in Environment, incentives on Dec 8th, 2010
It is not at all clear to me that comparing a world with mandated curbside recycling to a world with no recycling (mandates) that we get reductions in MSW generated. At least it is an empirical question. What the heck am I talking about? You might think that by having recycling, less stuff gets put [...]
Posted in Environment, incentives on Dec 6th, 2010
In Friday’s post we discussed one problem with measuring the success of recycling programs by showing people how much material was collected. Today, let’s think about another related problem. Good principles of economics students understand the law of supply – which tells us that if producers are able to secure a higher price for a [...]
Posted in Behavior, Environment, incentives on Oct 13th, 2010
While speed walking to class the other morning in the rain, I found myself stopping to read and take a picture of a garbage truck. What made this otherwise ordinary looking garbage truck so interesting, however, was the sign posted on the side reading, “Last year we recycled enough paper to save over 41 million [...]
Posted in Health Care, You Can't Have it Both Ways, incentives on Oct 6th, 2010
It is well known (apparently) that America is suffering an obesity epidemic of unprecedented proportions. And I’ve heard all kinds of proposals for how to deal with it, ranging from the seemingly innocent (e.g. providing more information in school about the risks of obesity) to the more draconian (banning trans-fats, or worse). My personal view [...]
Posted in Politics, incentives on Sep 10th, 2010
Actually, we don’t get to see it! They just pick up the factory and machine and take it to a private coffee shop. On the agenda over espressos and lattes, according to more than a dozen lobbyists and political operatives who have taken part in the sessions, have been front-burner issues like Wall Street regulation, [...]
Posted in incentives on Aug 9th, 2010
I am in the midst of an excellent book, The Big Necessity, and the author does her best not to be too overtly in love with the state, but she does believe that creating more public toilets would solve all sorts of problems, such as long bathroom lines for women: There would be fewer queues [...]
Posted in Institutions, incentives on Jul 29th, 2010
This just hit the wire: WASHINGTON (AP) — Estimates of the number of graves that might be affected by mix-ups at Arlington National Cemetery grew from hundreds to as many as 6,600 on Thursday, as the cemetery’s former superintendent blamed his staff and a lack of resources for the scandal that forced his ouster. John [...]
Posted in Education, incentives on Apr 9th, 2010
Inside Higher Ed reports that, Since the 1960s, the national mean G.P.A. at the institutions from which he’s collected grades has risen by about 0.1 each decade – other than in the 1970s, when G.P.A.s stagnated or fell slightly. In the 1950s, according to Rojstaczer’s data, the mean G.P.A. at U.S. colleges and universities was [...]
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