Bryan Caplan's Blog, page 22

The “Democratic Centralism” of COVID

The anonymous author of the satirical “Homeless Camping in Austin: A Modest Proposal” has also sent me this more serious guest post.  The title is mine.  “Democratic centralism,” you may recall, is the Leninist practice of demanding strict loyalty to a party line after a (usually perfunctory) debate.  Printed with the author’s permission.

Well-read readers will note the parallels to Robin Hanson’s job market paper, “Warning Labels as Cheap Talk: Why Regulators Ban Drugs.”

Enjoy!

Since very earl...

Social Desirability Bias vs. Tourism

In the Yucatan, we stayed at several all-inclusive resorts.  These resorts were a good fit for my family: When you’re travelling in a Third World country with four kids during a pandemic, you want a convenient supply of abundant and tasty food – and enough variety to please each and every picky eater.  (Me included).  Since portions were smallish, we routinely ordered 12-15 dinners for dinner, all at zero marginal cost.  At least in Mexican resorts, tips are appreciated but not expected.

Economi...

Clear-Cut Price Discrimination

Some economists see price discrimination everywhere.  Others see it nowhere.  Key point of contention: How do you know that alleged “price discrimination” does not in fact reflect cost differences?  First-class airplane seats really are bigger, after all.

Logically speaking, though, mindfulness of cost differences can make you see more price discrimination rather than less.  Why?  Because businesses often charge the same price for manifestly different products – and it’s hard to imagine that the...

Homeless Camping in Austin: A Modest Proposal

This winter, I’m a visiting scholar at the University of Texas.  Though Austin is gorgeous, visitors can’t help but notice vast homeless villages scattered throughout the city.  Local sources tell me that this is driven by Austin’s repeal of the ban on homeless camping.  One of the economists I’ve met here has written a Swiftian proposal for reforming Austin’s approach.  The author prefers to remain anonymous, but this is printed with his permission.  Engage your sense of satire, and enjoy!

By ...

Reflections on the Yucatan

I just got back from two weeks in the Yucatan.  Overall, a fantastic trip.  Though Tyler told me we were crazy to go to Mexico during COVID, I’m sticking to the life course I set last June.  And since almost all our activities were outdoors, we felt very safe.  After factoring in the lower quality of Mexican health statistics, I’m still a little more nervous here in Texas.  In any case, here are my thoughts on our Yucatanean odyssey.

1. We stayed in Cancun for five nights, then spent two nights ...

Partisanship and Support for Immigration

Here’s a neat new piece in Social Science Quarterly by Richard Hanania.  The set-up:

I conducted a preregistered study with a representative sample of white Americans. The survey asked them how open they would be to accepting certain refugees into the United States. The characteristics of the refugees were changed along the following three dimensions:

Race: Refugees were either from the white country of Ukraine, or the predominately non-white country of Venezuela. Although one might suspect tha...

Call It Sour Grapes

I got my Ph.D. in economics from Princeton in 1997.  Twenty-three years after graduation, I remain a professor at a mid-ranked school.  The odds that I’ll ever get a job at a top-20 department look awfully low.  How do I feel about this situation?

The socially approved response, at least within social science, is to feel and express deep admiration for the plainly superior researchers at top schools.  I’m supposed to defer to their judgment on not only (a) which research methods are kosher, but ...

Open Borders: Pegg’s Essay Questions

IUPUI‘s Scott Pegg assigned Open Borders this semester, and kindly gave me permission to post the following essay questions on the book.  Enjoy!

Please answer one of the following four questions. Because this is an open book, open time assignment, I expect to see some detail and specificity in your answers. References to Caplan and Weinersmith’s book Open Borders: The Science and Ethics of Immigration should be made whichever question you choose. Your answers should be somewhere in the vicinity...

Spencer and Prejudice

Herbert Spencers From Freedom to Bondage famously claims that [T]he more things improve the louder become the exclamations about their badness.  And he offered a bunch of great examples.  Inspired by Spencers insight, I recently turned to Google Ngram to look at long-run trends for six oft-named expressions of prejudice.

 

 

 

 

Notice: Four out of six evils  racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia are now vastly more discussed that they were in early decades.  As Spencer would have...

The Sense in Which I Don’t Trust the Media

I ignore the news, in part, because I deem it unreliable.  That’s right, “I don’t trust the media.”  But what exactly do I mean by this seemingly conspiratorial statement?

All things considered, when I hear the media report on direct observations, I believe them.  If they say rioting is happening in DC, I am highly confident that rioting is happening in DC.  If they quote a politician, I am highly confident that the politician said the quote.  If they say that a person was convicted of a specifi...