Auto companies have made great strides in improving engine efficiency in recent decades. But those improvements haven’t done much to improve the fuel economy of America’s passenger car fleet. Instead, consumers have “spent” most of those efficiency improvements on bigger, faster cars. MIT economist Christopher Knittel has carefully quantified these tradeoffs in a recent paper in the American Economic [...]
Archive for the ‘Microeconomics’ Category
How Do Consumers Spend Engine Efficiency Advances? On Bigger, Faster Cars
Posted in Energy, Microeconomics, tagged Auto, Energy, Gasoline, Incentives, Offsetting Behavior on January 5, 2012 | 4 Comments »
You Can’t Manage What You Don’t Measure Correctly, NYC Crime Edition
Posted in Data, Microeconomics, tagged Crime, Incentives, Measurement, New York City on January 2, 2012 | 2 Comments »
You can’t manage what you don’t measure. That’s good advice, as far as it goes. But it has a dark underside: managing the measurement rather than actual outcomes. Over at the New York Times, Al Baker and Joseph Goldstein recount a troubling example. To keep reported crime rates low, New York’s Finest may be under [...]
Will New Technology Help People Escape the “Sports Tax”?
Posted in Microeconomics, Technology, tagged Microeconomics, Pricing, Sports, Television on December 16, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Today’s exercise in everyday economics: Brian Stelter and Amy Chozick making the case that cable and satellite TV subscribers are paying a “sports tax” (ht: Jennifer R.). Writing in the New York Times, they say: Although “sports” never shows up as a line item on a cable or satellite bill, American television subscribers pay, on average, about [...]
Why Are Restaurant Dinners Pricier Than Lunch?
Posted in Microeconomics, tagged Microeconomics, Pricing on December 15, 2011 | 5 Comments »
Over at Quora, restaurateur Jonas M. Luster explains why he charges more for items at dinner than at lunch: Lunch isn’t prepared and served by my A-team. Many times waiters and cooks have to prove themselves during lunch before being allowed on the dinner line. This means I pay less in payroll. Lunch doesn’t usually serve [...]
Cuddle in Coach, But Don’t Get Too Comfortable
Posted in Business, Microeconomics, tagged Airlines, Microeconomics, Pricing on December 9, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal had a fun article about Air New Zealand’s latest innovation: Cuddle Class. As “the Middle Seat” columnist Scott McCartney describes it: Steve Metz of Houston cuddled up with his wife Jackie and slept as they flew to New Zealand on a small futon. This flying couch wasn’t in a private jet [...]
The Behavioral Economics of Leftover Pizza
Posted in Life, Microeconomics, tagged Behavioral Economics, Humor, Life on November 30, 2011 | 10 Comments »
Jared would be proud of me. Whenever I grab lunch to eat in my office, I head over to Subway for a six-inch Veggie Delite with provolone. Just 280 calories. Yum. Depending on my mood and workload, I usually gobble down my Subway lunch between 12:15 and 1:00pm. On Monday, though, I started eating at [...]
Some Economics of Somali Piracy
Posted in International, Microeconomics, tagged Piracy, Somalia on October 9, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Jeffrey Gettleman has penned a fascinating piece about the 388-day ordeal of two British sailors taken hostage by Somali pirates. Writing in the New York Times Magazine, he recounts how Paul and Rachel Chandler sailed off course between the Seychelles and Tanzania and found their sailboat boarded by ten pirates. Their first order of business? [...]
What Should Economics Do in the Next Decade?
Posted in Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, tagged Economics on October 3, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Over at Economic Principals, David Warsh summarizes 55 short papers about the big questions that face economics. Among the suggestions: Most popular of the pitches, judging from the number of SSRN downloads, is, Why Don’t People and Institutions Do What They Know They Should?, by David Cutler, of Harvard University (a pungent exploration of the [...]
The Invisible Hand is Made of Delicious Invisible Meat
Posted in Life, Microeconomics, tagged Humor, Incentives, Tragedy of the Commons, TripAdvisor on September 30, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The incomparable xkcd on incentives, morals, and TripAdvisor: Here’s another favorite.
The Supply and Demand for War
Posted in International, Microeconomics, tagged Microeconomics, Supply and Demand, War 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 [...]
Most Requested
Twitter
Get Updates by Email
Get Updates by RSS
Share or Bookmark
-
Recent Posts
- Energy Security, the Infographic
- The Fight over Medicare Double Counting
- Why Free is a Bad Price, American Airlines Edition
- Jobs Report – The Soft Side of Mediocre
- Investing in Memories, Ocelot Edition
- Advanced Game Theory, Golden Balls Edition
- Entitlement Spending in One Picture
- Talking Tax Reform on the PBS Newshour
- The Federal Budget in One Picture
- Should We Blame TurboTax for Tax Code Complexity?
- How Big Are Tax Preferences?
- Should High Heels Be Taxed?
- Canada Will Eliminate the Penny
- Public Service Announcement: There Is No Health Care Tax on Home Sales
- Long Spots, Short Stripes
30-Second Economics
Tags
Categories
Archives
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
Translate this blog into
