Bryan Caplan's Blog, page 32

Krikorian/Caplan Soho Forum Debate

Heres the video for last weeks debate between myself and Mark Krikorian, head of the Center for Immigration Studies.  Resolution: The current pandemic makes it all the more necessary for the federal government to tighten restrictions on immigration.  Enjoy!

The post Krikorian/Caplan Soho Forum Debate appeared first on Econlib.

What We Would Now Know, If Demagogues Didn’t Rule Every Country on Earth

About six months after the rise of COVID-19, humanity still doesnt know the answers to a long list of critical questions.  Questions like:

1. What is the true Infection Fatality Rate (IFR)?

2. What fraction of the population has COVID-19 now?

3. What fraction of the population has already had it?

4. How does the IFR really vary by age, gender, and prior health status?

5. How much immunity to COVID-19 do recovered patients acquire?

6. What are the odds of contracting the disease indoors versus...

The Other Great Shutdown: Opening Statement for the Krikorian/Caplan Soho Forum Debate

Heres my opening statement for last nights Soho Forum debate with Mark Krikorian.

Ive debated Mark Krikorian on immigration many times before, but todays crisis provides a new and gripping argument against immigration.  Almost anyone can see the force of it: Coronavirus originated in China, migration brought it here, and suddenly life is terrible.  Dogmatic libertarians can keep droning on about liberty, but everyone else now plainly sees that strict immigration controls could have stopped...

Pandemic/Immigration Debate

Tomorrow night Im once again debating the Center for Immigration Studies Mark Krikorian, this time for the Soho Forum.  Resolution: The current pandemic makes it all the more necessary for the federal government to tighten restrictions on immigration.  You have to pay for the livestream, which also entitles you to participate in the Q&A.  The video will be available gratis a few days later.  Full details here.

 

The post Pandemic/Immigration Debate appeared first on Econlib.

Jason Brennan’s Good Work If You Can Keep It

On Friday, I received Jason Brennans new Good Work If You Can Get It: How to Succeed in Academia.  Its fantastic!  I already have my dream job for life, and I still couldnt put it down.  Brennan calmly and crisply cuts through piles of misconceptions, lame rationalizations, and mountains of Social Desirability Bias to tell would-be professors the cold, hard truth about their would-be occupation.

Good Work could just as easily be called Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Becoming a...

Gouge Is Good

If youve bought anything in the past six weeks, youve seen shortages.  In grocery stores, youve see empty shelves.  Online, youve seen long waits.

If you know econ 101, theres an obvious explanation: price-gouging laws.  When supply falls, the markets normal reaction is to raise prices.  Governments reaction, however, is to paint the markets normal reaction as vicious exploitation and order prices to stay flat despite reduced supply.  Shortages inevitably result.

While this story has great...

Commentary on State Capacity and State Priorities

Two EconLog readers comments on yesterdays post struck me:

Phil H.:

Caplans point is a good and striking one. His conclusion is fairly extraordinary, though: He is apparently claiming that all (or a plurality) of the major decision makers in the American government are power-hungry demagogues who deliberately decided to channel money into stimulus rather than research because they are bad people.

I like a powerful contrarian claim, but this one is a little too far for me.

Fair question,...

State Priorities, Not State “Capacity”

In the last few years, social scientists have started heavily appealing to state capacity to explain the wealth of nations.  Why do some countries prosper?  Because they have great state capacity.  Why do others flounder?  Because they have crummy state capacity.  What do floundering countries need to do in order to prosper?  Build state capacity, naturally.

Many of these same social scientists see the coronavirus as a great vindication of their research.  Which countries are coping well with...

How to Win Friends and Influence People? Book Club Round-Up

As promised, heres my closing Ask My Anything session on Dale Carnegies classic book.

And in case you missed any installment, I link to the full Book Club below.

Announcement

Commercial

Part 1

Q&A #1

Part 2

Q&A #2

Part 3

Q&A #3

Part 4

Q&A #4

Supplementary Principles

Hope you enjoyed yourself, gained some insight, and permanently improve your social skills.  Remember: Most people are so bad, you can separate yourself from the pack with even a token effort.  You can do this.

The post How to Win...

So Congested No One Goes There Anymore?

I was glad to see Florida beaches reopen last weekend.  Agree with me or not, though, this part seems crazy: The beaches will be open from 6 to 11 a.m. and 5 to 8 p.m local time.  When you reduce hours of operation, you obviously increase congestion, which in turn obviously impedes social distancing.  Upshot: If youre going to reopen, you should reopen completely.

Is that really so obvious, though?  You could demur, If beaches are less congested, the total number of beach-goers will...