Tyler Cowen's Blog, page 448

Car wash quantity discounts markets in everything

Here’s an offer that a lot of drivers would have a tough time turning down: free sex after nine car washes. [TC: is that such a good offer?]

Police near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, cracked down last week after getting wind of the unique offer from the teaming of a car wash and a massage parlor in the suburb of Sunway Mentari, the Malay Mail reports.

The full story is here, hat tip here.

Economic education in Italy

Prof. Antonio Nicita emails to me:

Following a long period of cooperation in the field of Economics, the  Universities of Florence, Pisa and Siena announce a new joint regional PhD program, with 10 three years scholarships, supported by Regione Toscana.

The Doctorate courses will provide students the knowledge, analytical skills and capabilities to conduct their research at the frontier of economics. Our programme gives emphasis to economic history and the history of economic thought, and recognizes the importance of  exposing students to different theoretical perspectives.

First year courses will mainly be held at the University of Siena, where students are welcome to apply for accommodation facilities. In the following years students will rely on the academic environment and facilities in one of the three universities, according to their research interests.

For additional information please refer to the site: http://www.econ-pol.unisi.it/dottorato/, or to the official sites of the Tuscan Universities

The use of Robinson Crusoe in economics

From RM, I received this query:

I’m still trying to figure out when the Robinson Crusoe analogy entered the economic discussion in history.

I would have thought Karl Marx was the origin, or perhaps one of the utopian socialists.  Any better ideas?  Maybe this expensive book can tell us.

More on the ngdp debates

Lots of content, here is Scott Sumner,  David Beckworth, Ryan Avent, and Angus (the most negative on ngdp theorizing of the lot).  There is no Bill Woolsey post as of yet.

Assorted links

1. Claiming back advances from authors who never deliver the manuscript.

2. Frakt on Daniel Kessler on Medicare reform.

3. Via Chris F. Masse, Cass Sunstein on Sugar Man.

4. The resurrection of Indian classical music.

5. The David Giles “must read” list for econometrics papers.

Is the Great Mirror Stagnation over?

“There hasn’t been much innovation with the mirror,” said Ming-Zher Poh, who, as a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, developed a bio-sensing system called the Medical Mirror.

Introduced in 2010, the Medical Mirror uses a camera to measure a person’s pulse rate based on slight variations in the brightness of the face as blood flows each time the heart pumps. A two-way mirror creates a reflection while keeping visible the pulse reading on a computer monitor behind the mirror’s surface.

And this:

Japanese electronics conglomerate Panasonic Corp. initially considered targeting household consumers with its digital mirror—a flat-screen display powered by a computer behind a two-way mirror—but the company decided to target business customers instead because of the price.

In July, Panasonic started accepting orders for its mirror—priced at nearly Y3 million ($38,000)—targeting physical rehabilitation centers.

At the Yokohama Rehabilitation Center in Japan, a test site for the device, 77-year-old Takao Yamamura uses the digital mirror to rehabilitate after suffering extensive nerve damage following a spinal cord infarction.

The full article is here.  One problem is that consumers do not buy new mirrors very often, plus they are used to prices below $38k.

Eugene Genovese has passed away

Here is one appreciation, here is Wikipedia.  You should read Roll, Jordan, Roll, if you have not already.

For the pointer I thank Peter Stearns.

The sorry truth about military drones

From Glenn Greenwald, a must-read:

A vitally important and thoroughly documented new report on the impact of Obama’s drone campaign has just been released by researchers at NYU School of Law and Stanford University Law School. Entitled “Living Under Drones: Death, Injury and Trauma to Civilians From US Drone Practices in Pakistan”, the report details the terrorizing effects of Obama’s drone assaults as well as the numerous, highly misleading public statements from administration officials about that campaign. The study’s purpose was to conduct an “independent investigations into whether, and to what extent, drone strikes in Pakistan conformed to international law and caused harm and/or injury to civilians”.

There is much more at the link.  And there is this:

…American progressives cheered loudly when a similar question was posed by Al Gore in a widely celebrated 2006 speech he gave on the Washington mall denouncing the Bush/Cheney assault on civil liberties:

“‘If the president has the inherent authority to eavesdrop on American citizens without a warrant, imprison American citizens on his own declaration, kidnap and torture, then what can’t he do?’”

What has always amazed me about that is that, there, Gore was merely decrying Bush’s mere eavesdropping on Americans and his detention of them without judicial review. Yet here Obama is claiming the power to decide who should be killed without a shred of transparency, oversight, or due process – a power that is being continuously used to kill civilians, including children – and many of these same progressives now actually cheer for that.

I praise Kevin Drum for his good work on this, but too many others cannot bring themselves to utter much protest or, for that matter, defense, if that is indeed their view.

On foreign policy, here are some related points (too polemic for my tastes but still some good points) and no I am not trying to suggest Romney would be superior on these issues nor am I endorsing any other candidate.

Assorted links

1. Bad news on the health care cost curve, and more from Reihan.

2. Why social welfare states need the United States.

3. Suzuki’s respect for bats.

4. GMO crops, post-patent.

5. James Medoff has passed away.

It’s the bias against stale labor, not the sticky nominal wages

At this point, at least.  Read this bit from Chris Blattman.  Apparently, most of the staleness sets in within eight months.  Note, by the way, that this explanation simultaneously can account for a) unemployment not being very nice for the unemployed, and b) inability to use lower wage demands to get a job, even with ngdp ten percent above its pre-crisis peak.