Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘Tragedy of the Commons’

The Invisible Hand is Made of Delicious Invisible Meat

Posted in Life, Microeconomics, tagged , , , on September 30, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

The incomparable xkcd on incentives, morals, and TripAdvisor:   Here’s another favorite.

Read Full Post »

Thanksgiving Reading

Posted in Business, Microeconomics, Nature, Politics, Technology, tagged , , , , on November 24, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

So many fascinating economic issues, so little time to blog. Here are some of the fun items that I would have discussed in recent days if I had infinite time: How OpenTable uses its market power. Over at Incanto, Mark Pastore describes how OpenTable uses its dominant position in online restaurant reservations to get as much [...]

Read Full Post »

How to Defeat the Lionfish? Use Your Knife and Fork

Posted in Life, Microeconomics, Nature, tagged , , on July 8, 2010 | 1 Comment »

As regular readers know, I am intrigued by animals in weird places (voles in the Rose Garden, grey whales in the Mediterranean) and quirky discussions of property rights (guacamole, overhead bins, snow shoveling, office lunches). So imagine my delight when I opened the Food section of the Washington Post to discover an issue that brings [...]

Read Full Post »

Ultra Trouble for the Ultra Low Cost Airline?

Posted in Life, Microeconomics, tagged , , , on April 12, 2010 | 10 Comments »

Last week Spirit Airlines announced that it would start charging fees for carry-on bags this summer. Spirit described the benefits of this move as follows: “In addition to lowering fares even further, this will reduce the number of carry-on bags, which will improve inflight safety and efficiency by speeding up the boarding and deplaning process, [...]

Read Full Post »

Spirit Airlines Combats the Tragedy of the Overhead Bin

Posted in Life, Microeconomics, tagged , , on April 6, 2010 | 7 Comments »

As any frequent flyer knows, the competition for overhead space is tight. As I noted a few months ago (“The Warped Economics of Carry-On Luggage“), the situation has only become worse since airlines started charging fees for checked luggage. Budget-conscious travelers caught on quick and started carrying on more of their luggage. In economic terms, [...]

Read Full Post »

The Tragedy of the Guacamole

Posted in Life, Microeconomics, Uncategorized, tagged , , on February 28, 2010 | 4 Comments »

One of the themes of this blog is that economics is everywhere in daily life. Property rights, for example, are at the heart of everyday battles over overhead bins, shoveled-out parking spaces, and food in shared refrigerators. Continuing in that vein, a friend recently sent me a link to an amusing piece about sharing guacamole. [...]

Read Full Post »

The Warped Economics of Carry-On Luggage

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on October 23, 2009 | 26 Comments »

I just got home from a quick trip to Denver, where I spoke at a Concord Coalition event on our nation’s dire fiscal outlook. That’s a big, complex problem, but today I’d like to share some thoughts on an even more vexing problem: the warped economics of carry-on luggage. As you probably know, most major [...]

Read Full Post »

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 40 other followers