Why the U.S. needs a lot more ultra-high-skilled immigration via @AbacusNews. ... Read More
The San Antonio Express-News’ Michael Taylor Compliments The Upside of Inequality
The San Antonio Express-News' Michael Taylor Compliments The Upside of Inequality “Conard’s book challenges some deeply held beliefs. I want people … who think inequality is a major problem to read more smart people on the other side of the debate, like Edward Conard.” Is the wealth gap really all that bad? The financial crisis wiped out trillions of dollars of savings and capital in America, sparking an entire movement against the top 1 percent of earners and ... Read More
Graph of the Week: An indication of the migration of talent to large cities…
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Two More Studies Find Shocking Inability to Replicate Economic Research
The Economist reports on two more studies that find a shocking inability to replicate economic research: A recent examination in the Economic Journal, of almost 7,000 empirical economics studies, found that in half of the areas of research, nearly 90% of those studies were underpowered, i.e., that they used samples too small to judge whether a particular effect was really there. Of the studies that avoided this pitfall, 80% were found to have exaggerated the reported ... Read More
Breakdown of Productivity Growth From 1990-2017
This chart shows the breakdown of productivity growth from 1990-2017. ... Read More
New Study Finds Mortgage-Backed Bonds Issued Pre-Crisis Were Properly Rated
A new study published by the NBER examines the losses suffered by AAA-rated mortgage securities issued in the lead up to the financial crisis. The study finds: “Total cumulated losses [on AAA-rated securities] up to 2013 are under six percent. … The subprime AAA-rated RMBS did particularly well. … [The] returns on AAA RMBS strike us as rather reasonable, and unlikely to have thrown the financial system into the abyss. … Together, these facts call into question the ... Read More
More Evidence Declining Manufacturing Reduced Lower Skilled Employment
The University of Chicago economist Erik Hurst finds: A 10 percentage point decline in the local manufacturing share [no matter the reason] reduced local employment rates by 3.7 percentage points for prime age men and 2.7 percentage points for prime age women. To put the magnitude in perspective, naively extrapolating the local estimates suggests that between one-third and one-half of the decline in employment rates and annual hours for prime age workers during the ... Read More
