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 Extended Order, Government Gone Wild, Institutions, Unintended Consequences on May 7th, 2012
Can a good thing be turned into a bad thing. It appears that Americans are responding to the taxes, exhortations, health risks and other anti-smoking efforts and have actually been reducing their smoking at rates faster than experts initially calculated. So what’s the problem? Some of you are old enough to remember the tobacco boondoggle [...]
Posted in Central Planning, Paternalism, Taxation, Unintended Consequences on Apr 18th, 2012
I just finished reading a new NBER paper that talks about how subsidies for “green” products can be “welfare improving” if people have systematically biased beliefs or other misperceptions about how energy efficient their purchase of durables really is. Here is the paper. Here is the abstract: We show how the traditional logic of Pigouvian [...]
Posted in Unintended Consequences, trade on Jan 17th, 2012
Guess what year this is referring to? I slightly edited it from the original. … villages in the lower Yangtze became congested hives of small … factories, attracting workers from other parts of China and spewing (wintercow: nice choice of words, huh) out goods at frightening (wintercow: nice choice of words, huh) volume. Yuengang merchants [...]
Posted in Education, Unintended Consequences on Dec 19th, 2011
For conservatives it might seem pretty inconsistent to hold the position that Pell grants and financial aid drive up college costs (they do) and then to support schol vouchers at the K12 level. I understand that preference for each of these positions is not coming from the same place. But think about it – the [...]
Posted in Environment, Unintended Consequences on Dec 8th, 2011
I am sure you’ll soon hear some debate about the pending Supreme Court hearing of a 9th Circuit (yes THAT 9th circuit) decision to consider rainwater runoff from forest service roads a pollutant to be regulated under the Clean Water Act and not by the states. Look, I do not want to get into whether [...]
Posted in Unintended Consequences on Oct 24th, 2011
In an article on some really cool school that focuses on healthy eating and exercise habits we read: The family’s grocery bills are higher, but Hester, a freelance writer, says she and her husband, a security officer, have decided it’s worth spending more on food and forgoing things like a new car, for their kids’ [...]
Posted in Unintended Consequences on Sep 21st, 2011
When was the last time we heard a politician brag about their policies actually working instead of them bragging about their proposals actually becoming policy?
Posted in Unintended Consequences on Aug 14th, 2011
New York State recently legalized gay marriage. Prior to this legalization, our university was very proactive about recognizing same sex couples, particularly when it came to employee benefits. Indeed, if you were a U of R employee your same-sex partner was eligible to receive health insurance coverage under your plan (as well as children). However, [...]
Posted in Environment, Unintended Consequences, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Jun 27th, 2011
The following passage has been lightly edited: Over the past decade these problems have cast long shadows, but we have been slow to recognize them. Most of those best fitted to develop natural controls and assist in putting them into effect have been too busy laboring in the more exciting vineyards of chemical control. It [...]
Posted in Unintended Consequences, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Jun 16th, 2011
Economists have long been attracted to using biology to illustrate important lessons. Darwinian evolution is perhaps the most suitable analogy to how economic order emerges. The quote below my blog title above best illustrates another important lesson that is shared in both biology and economics. Here is another wonderful passage from Silent Spring (my emphasis [...]
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