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Archive for the ‘International’ Category

A Synchronized Slowdown in Developed Economies

Posted in Economy, International, Macroeconomics, tagged , , on August 17, 2011 | 1 Comment »

Which of the following nations recorded the strongest economic growth in the second quarter? France, Germany, Italy, Japan, or the United States? This nice chart from today’s Wall Street Journal provides the answer (click for larger version): The U.S. expanded at a tepid 1.3% annual pace in Q2, but that was still better than many other [...]

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Spain’s 1575 Default

Posted in Budget, History, International, tagged , , , , on August 1, 2011 | 1 Comment »

If all goes according to plan, the hoopla over the debt limit will soon recede. Policymakers and analysts will move on to the next new thing. And, sadly, some fascinating questions will forever go unanswered. For example, which president would appear on the trillion-dollar coin?  But if you are up for one last article about default, yesterday’s piece by [...]

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The Supply and Demand for War

Posted in International, Microeconomics, tagged , , on July 13, 2011 | 2 Comments »

Wars are becoming more common. Writing at History Today, Kathryn Hadley reports (ht: The Browser): New research by Professors Mark Harrison from the University of Warwick and Nikolaus Wolf from Humboldt University has revealed that between 1870 and 2001, the frequency of wars between states increased steadily by 2% a year on average. “Steadily” might be [...]

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Avoiding Road Kill in Ghana

Posted in International, Nature, tagged , , , , on June 28, 2011 | 1 Comment »

In Washington’s economic circles, the only animals we usually have to worry about are hawks and doves. (And the occasional raccoon or vole.) If you’re doing development research in Ghana, however, things are more complicated.  Zipping from village to village on her motorcycle, my friend Liz has become intimately familiar with the behavior — often stochastic – of different [...]

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Moral Hazard, Pakistan Edition

Posted in Budget, International, tagged , , , on May 17, 2011 | 2 Comments »

The United States can’t pursue al Qaeda alone. We need help from other nations. To encourage nations to provide that help, the U.S. created the Coalition Support Fund to reimburse coalition partners for the costs they incur fighting terrorism. As Adam Entous reports in the WSJ, the prospect for such “reimbursement” creates an obvious incentive: our partners may exaggerate how [...]

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Rainfall, Human Capital, and Democracy

Posted in History, International, tagged on April 12, 2011 | 1 Comment »

To what extent do natural environments explain political development? A lot, according to a recent paper by Stephen Haber and Victor Menaldo. They find that rainfall and democracy go together like porridge and Goldilocks – to get democracy to flourish, it shouldn’t be too wet or too dry: Why are some societies characterized by enduring [...]

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Ode to Germany, a Mini-Song by Merle Hazard

Posted in Economy, International, tagged , , on January 27, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Mini is apparently the new thing in popular economics. Tyler Cowen’s new mini-book is getting lots of attention from the blogosphere. And econ-crooner Merle Hazard has released a set of mini-songs about the European debt crisis. Best so far is Ode to Germany: For more, click on over to Paul Solman’s page at the PBS [...]

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Europe and the Financial Crisis

Posted in Economy, Finance, International, Macroeconomics, tagged , , on January 16, 2011 | 1 Comment »

Over the New York Times Magazine, Paul Krugman has today’s must-read economics article on the fate of Europe. (Today’s in the physical world; it’s been up electronically for several days.) Krugman walks through various ways that struggling Eurozone members might adjust to their ongoing financial crisis. Along the way, he emphasizes a key point: American [...]

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The Economics of Al-Qaeda in Iraq

Posted in International, tagged on December 21, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Follow the money. From Al Capone to Watergate and beyond, that’s been sound advice for anyone trying to understand the workings of shady organizations. In the latest installment, a group of researchers at the RAND National Defense Research Institute have analyzed accounting ledgers that document the activities of Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) in Anbar province [...]

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200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes

Posted in Data, International, Macroeconomics, tagged , , on December 2, 2010 | 4 Comments »

Courtesy of the BBC. here’s the newest version of Hans Rosling’s famous presentation on economic growth and life expectancy. Keep an eye out for the moments in history when life expectancy plummets.

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