Tyler Cowen's Blog, page 467

Sentences to ponder

…I find it remarkable that I have yet to receive a thank you note for paying my taxes.  When I fill out my taxes, I notice that even receipts for $25 donations have thank you notes attached. But for the tens of thousands of dollars I give each year to help keep our wonderful Republic afloat, nothing. Can’t we do a little more as a nation to honor our taxpayers individually?

…And how about a dinner at the White House honoring the top 100 taxpayers in the country? Not the 100 richest people in the country, but the top 100 taxpayers. One might object that they would just use the opportunity to lobby for lower taxes, but if they did, they wouldn’t get invited the next year.

That is from Miles Kimball.  Of course very often these individuals are criticized for not wanting to pay higher taxes.

*Science Left Behind*

The authors are Alex Berezow and Hank Campbell, and the subtitle is Feel-Good Fallacies and the Rise of the Anti-Scientific Left.  I agree with many of the particular claims in this book, and also I find those undervalued in broader intellectual discourse.  Nonetheless I am struck by a mismatch between the book’s message and some of its tone, as well as the sense that one side should be singled out for condemnation (the same point can be made about left-wing books on related topics).

This excerpt made me giggle:

…despite what some progressives will contend, the purpose of this book is not to demonize all progressives.  We just want to demonize the loony ones.

Assorted links

1. The truly important use for drones.

2. Peter Orszag on competitive bidding for Medicare.

3. Comments from an Irish burglar, and Caplan defends Bastiat.

4. The culture that is Finland, don’t miss the tag at the end.

5. Photo of Tomorrowland.

6. What levels of immigration would be needed…?

7. Dean Baker on how much housing policy could have helped.

That’s a lot of links for today but they are worthy.

Monkeys reject unequal pay

Greg Mankiw points us to this revealing video from Frans de Waal. This is an excerpt from a longer TED video, also excellent.

Jeff Sachs reviews Acemoglu and Robinson

As you might expect, he stresses geography rather than institutions:

In places where production is expensive because of an inhospitable climate, unfavorable topography, low population densities, or a lack of proximity to global markets, many technologies from abroad will not arrive quickly through foreign investments or outsourcing. Compare Bolivia and Vietnam in the 1990s, both places I experienced firsthand as an economic adviser. Bolivians enjoyed greater political and civil rights than the Vietnamese did, as measured by Freedom House, yet Bolivia’s economy grew slowly whereas Vietnam’s attracted foreign investment like a magnet. It is easy to see why: Bolivia is a landlocked mountainous country with much of its territory lying higher than 10,000 feet above sea level, whereas Vietnam has a vast coastline with deep-water ports conveniently located near Asia’s booming industrial economies. Vietnam, not Bolivia, was the desirable place to assemble television sets and consumer appliances for Japanese and South Korean companies.

The review is interesting throughout, though I would stress the old saying: “As usual, the truth lies somewhere in between.”

The Hispanic high school graduation rate is increasing

The number of young Hispanics enrolled in college, which surpassed black enrollment for the first time in 2010, jumped to almost 2.1 million last year, from about 1.3 million in 2008. That is partly a product of a swelling Hispanic population, as well as the increased rate of college attendance.

But it also reflects a fast-rising high school graduation rate. In the 1990s, fewer than 60 percent of Hispanics 18 to 24 had a high school diploma, but that figure hit 70 percent for the first time in 2009, and 76 percent last year.

Here is a bit more.

Education as loss leader?

And then there is the Walt Disney Company. It is building a chain of language schools in China big enough to enroll more than 150,000 children annually. The schools, which weave Disney characters into the curriculum, are not going to move the profit needle at a company with $41 billion in annual revenue. But they could play a vital role in creating a consumer base as Disney builds a $4.4 billion theme park and resort in Shanghai.

Here is more, mostly on whether media companies enjoy any synergies in education markets, interesting throughout.

Assorted links

1. Who dies from Russian roulette?

2. Interview with the new GMU President, Ángel Cabrera.

3. Lawrence Summers on government growth (very good piece), or try this link, and a Reihan follow-up.

4. Sokurov’s Faust will be out on DVD soon, it has received rave reviews.

5. Updated results on right to carry laws, and Medicaid seems to improve black child mortality but perhaps not white child mortality.

Evan Soltas is now writing for Bloomberg

Here is his excellent column on decentralized provincial health care provision in Canada.  Excerpt:

By fixing the maximum federal contribution, block grants offer Canada’s provincial and territorial governments far better incentives to reduce the cost and improve the quality of the medical services they purchase. When costs rise, the provinces that run the programs are forced to pay 100 percent of the added costs at the margin, unlike in the U.S., where state governments pay an average of 43 cents at the margin for every dollar of added Medicaid expense.

Decentralized administration gives provinces the flexibility and the accountability to design their programs according to their needs and particular local challenges, rather than federal “one-size-fits-none” imposition. It also creates opportunities for innovation. By sharing notes, provinces and territories learn from one another and improve their Medicare programs.

Canada has been using block grants for 35 years. After several years of ruinously high growth in Medicare expenses during the 1970s, their federal government abandoned a 50-50 cost-sharing plan in 1977. Through the Canada Health Transfer program, which gives states some money directly and some through tax-shifting agreements, Canadian provinces and territories receive equal per capita aid, regardless of actual health care expenditure.

Hat tip goes to Miles Kimball.

Does new information slow down your life?

From William Reville, here is a speculation:

Finally, here is a “guaranteed” way to lengthen your life. Childhood holidays seem to last forever, but as you grow older time seems to accelerate. “Time” is related to how much information you are taking in – information stretches time. A child’s day from 9am to 3.30pm is like a 20-hour day for an adult. Children experience many new things every day and time passes slowly, but as people get older they have fewer new experiences and time is less stretched by information. So, you can “lengthen” your life by minimising routine and making sure your life is full of new active experiences – travel to new places, take on new interests, and spend more time living in the preset.

Most of the short article considers why “the return journey” often seems to run by much faster.