More in Global Economy


6 years

Early Childhood Education Fails Another Randomized Trial

Public programs for pre-K education have a worthy goal: reducing the gaps in educational achievement that manifest themselves in early grades. I find myself rooting for such programs to succeed. But there are now two major randomized control trial studies looking at the the results of publicly provided pre-K programs, and neither one finds lasting success. Mark W. Lipsey, Dale C. Farran, and Kelley Durkin report the results of the most recent study in "Effects of the Tennessee Prekindergarten Program on children’s achievement and behavior through third grade" (Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 2018, online version April 21, 2018). 

6 years

Copper And Gold Say A Lot About Chinese And Global Growth

Weakness in Copper persists, and it shows the risks to optimistic global growth and inflation expectations. But something else is happening in gold and copper apart from global slowdown and US dollar strength.

6 years

Conflict Minerals and Unexpected Tradeoffs

The cause seemed worthy, and the policy mild. Militia groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) were taxing and extorting revenue from those who mined like tin, tungsten, and tantalum. Thus, Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 required companies to disclose the source of their purchases of such minerals. The hope was to reduce funding for the militias, and thus to benefit people in the area. Human rights advocacy groups supported the idea. The Good Intentions Paving Company was up and running.

6 years

The Eurozone’s Coming Debt Crisis

The European Central bank has signalled the end of its asset purchase program and a possible rate hike before 2019. After more than 2 trillion euro of purchases and zero interest rate policy, it is overdue.

6 years

On Preferring A to B, While Also Preferring B to A

"In the last quarter-century, one of the most intriguing findings in behavioral science goes under the unlovely name of preference reversals between joint and separate evaluations of options. The basic idea is that when people evaluate options A and B separately, they prefer A to B, but when they evaluate the two jointly, they prefer B to A." Thus, Cass R. Sunstein begins his interesting and readable paper "On preferring A to B, while also preferring B to A" (Rationality and Society 2018,  first published July 11, 2018, subscription required). 

6 years

Europe Needs to Harmonize to Ireland

Whenever we talk about tax cuts and growth-oriented tax programs in Europe, many tell us that “it is not possible” and that the European Union does not allow it.

6 years

Risk Off? Not Really

The recent strength in the US dollar and stock market weakness has generated many headlines about “risk-off” mentality. However, the reality is quite different. We are far from capitulation.

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