Monthly Archives: November 2007

MY MOTHER’S WHITE GLOVES (COMMENT).

Posted on November 18, 2007 by Philip

MY MOTHER’S WHITE GLOVES (COMMENT). I responded below to Annalisa’s kind speculation that economists should get credit for having the tools to analyze air pollution. I should add that, without a great deal of attention from economists or environmentalists, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, History | 1 Comment

SMOKE FIFTY YEARS AGO (COMMENT).

Posted on November 18, 2007 by Philip

SMOKE FIFTY YEARS AGO (COMMENT). I posted here on how the economics courses that I took in the sixties analyzed the problem of air pollution, but did not consider its importance (or its pervasiveness). Annalisa commented, “Does this mean economists … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics | 3 Comments

VENETIAN VOTING.

Posted on November 17, 2007 by Philip

VENETIAN VOTING. The December Atlantic reported on this article, by Melinda Mowbray and Dieter Gollmann, which analyzes the rules the Venetians used to elect their doge for over 700 years, from 1268 until 1797. Table 1 in the article summarizes … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Politics | Leave a comment

A USE FOR CONFEDERATE BONDS.

Posted on November 16, 2007 by Philip

A USE FOR CONFEDERATE BONDS. People are still arguing whether the South could have won the Civil War. The Wall Street Journal this week reported that two economists, Kim Oosterlinck and Marc Weidenmier, have found a way to use the … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, History | 1 Comment

POLLS ARE VARIABLE BUT VOTERS ARE PREDICTABLE.

Posted on November 15, 2007 by Philip

POLLS ARE VARIABLE BUT VOTERS ARE PREDICTABLE. This article by Jay Cost (link via RealClearPolitics), and this article, discuss “Why Are American Presidential Election Campaign Polls So Variable When Voters Are So Predictable?”, an academic study by Gary King and … Continue reading →

Posted in Journalism, Politics | Leave a comment

TRAGEDIES ON THE JOURNEY WEST.

Posted on November 14, 2007 by Philip

TRAGEDIES ON THE JOURNEY WEST. I have on the wall of my office two paintings made my daughter Annalisa when she was fourteen. They are companion pieces about the trips made west by pioneers after the Civil War. One shows … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, History | 1 Comment

THOREAU AND THE PIONEERS.

Posted on November 13, 2007 by Philip

THOREAU AND THE PIONEERS. In the article by Jill Lepore that I posted on here, she describes how Thoreau rejected the economic growth of the nineteenth century to return to a subsistence way of life. He made the decision, as … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, History | 1 Comment

WHAT CAUSED THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION?

Posted on November 12, 2007 by Philip

WHAT CAUSED THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION? Kids, a graph in a review article in the New York Review of Books by Nobel Prize winner Robert Solow is very important to me. The review is of A FAREWELL TO ALMS: A Brief … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, History | 1 Comment

LOOKING BACK: ECONOMICS FORTY YEARS AGO—DEVELOPMENT.

Posted on November 11, 2007 by Philip

LOOKING BACK: ECONOMICS FORTY YEARS AGO—DEVELOPMENT. Forty years ago in economics, one of the most exciting subjects was a new one. Courses were being offered in Development Economics. Now that England and other Western countries had shown the way, we … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, History | 1 Comment

LOOKING BACK: ECONOMICS FORTY YEARS AGO—SMOKE.

Posted on November 10, 2007 by Philip

LOOKING BACK: ECONOMICS FORTY YEARS AGO—SMOKE. Back forty years ago, when I was in graduate school studying economics, there would be one or two hours a semester where the subject of “external diseconomies” was discussed. Wikipedia gives a good definition: … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, History | 2 Comments