The academic field of political economy has made a resurgence and is at the forefront of cutting-edge social science research. A major part of this resurgence is due to the recently departed Alberto Alesina.
All in Economics
The academic field of political economy has made a resurgence and is at the forefront of cutting-edge social science research. A major part of this resurgence is due to the recently departed Alberto Alesina.
Approaches to tackling inequality need to take into account the larger picture of national development. We cannot miss the forest for the trees.
The history of our universe and of our Earth is also a history of having avoided extreme scenarios. For life to have developed on Earth, we needed the so-called ‘Goldilocks’ conditions – not too hot, but not too cold, just right.
Once something is ‘conventional wisdom’ or a ‘norm,’ and if that something manages to persist over time, it can be extremely difficult to break from that norm. It is why change is so difficult.
There is no magic silver bullet that will solve inequality of income or opportunity. Instead, we should be prepared to invest in a holistic way to address inequality in society.
No true change and reform is straightforward. But markets, in almost all cases, prefer stability and the status quo – what is going on in Malaysia may be anathema to markets.
For any given individual, the narratives we tell ourselves about how the world works or how events play out becomes our ‘truth’ and can very easily take precedence over facts.
I would go all-in on the bet that taxes, whether defined in quantum or in type, are just going to increase as we move into the future.
Can Economics show how, the most irrational and illogical – by conventional wisdom, anyway – emotion that humans have can be rational and utility maximising?
Inequality is typically a symptom of something else at work. Rather than lambast inequality for inequality’s sake, we should take great care in finding out how that inequality came to be.
Over the weekend, I finished watching The Wire, a HBO drama series concluded in 2008, that revolved around the city of Baltimore, Maryland
Even pure, free market competition, sans oligopolies and monopolies, may lead to sub optimal outcomes from the perspective of the collective.