Ronald Coase, amning, halal & nøgenbadning ...

Jeg har blogget om tre emner, jeg ikke havde troet, at jeg skulle komme til at beskæftige mig med: Amning, halalslagtning og nøgenbadning.  Og slet ikke samtidigt.  Til gengæld var det

Freakonomics blogged "It's the weather, stupid ..."

So, Freakonomics (Steve Levitt, Chicago, and journalist Stephen Dubner) blogged and tweeted about my "It's the weather, stupid ..." paper (gated version, ungated version).  Their book sold 4,000,000 copies and their daily tweets alone reach +500,000 followers ...

It's the Weather, Stupid: New evidence from Denmark’s annual May Day demonstrations on the power of the weather. bit.ly/YHDYEF
— freakonomics (@freakonomics) May 9, 2013

BTW: So did my old friend, Lars Christensen at Market Monetarist.
Here and here are

Interessant forskning: Berg & Henrekson om offentlige udgifter/økonomisk vækst

De to fremragende svenske økonomer Andreas Bergh og Magnus Henrekson har fornylig fået udgivet deres interessante paper "Government Size and Growth: A Survey and Interpretation of the Evidence" i Journal of Economic Surveys.  Her er en tidligere udgave og dette sammendrag:

"The literature on the relationship between the size of government and economic growth is full of seemingly contradictory findings. This conflict is largely explained by variations in definitions and the countries studied. An alternative approach – of limiting the focus to studies of the relationship in rich countries, measuring government size as total taxes or total expenditure relative to GDP and relying on panel data estimations with variation over time – reveals a more consistent picture: The most recent studies find a significant negative correlation: An increase in government size by 10 percentage points is associated with a 0.5 to 1 percent lower annual growth rate. We discuss efforts to make sense of this correlation, and note several pitfalls involved in giving it a causal interpretation. Against this background, we discuss two explanations of why several countries with high taxes seem able to enjoy above average growth: One hypothesis is that countries with higher social trust levels are able to develop larger government sectors without harming the economy. Another explanation is that countries with large governments compensate for high taxes and spending by implementing market-friendly policies in other areas. Both explanations are supported by ongoing research."

"Genopretningsplanen": For lidt, for sent, og forkert

Her er min ikke helt værdifrie vurdering af regeringens såkaldte "Genopretningsplan".

Nobelprisen i økonomi til Ostrom & Williamson

Politologen Elinor Ostrom fik (sammen med Oliver Williamson) Nobelprisen i økonomi. Hende (og ham) har jeg længe været en fan af. Mere her.

Update: Nå ja, så glemte jeg vist at sige, hun er fhv. præsident for Public Choice Society samt fra tid til anden bidragyder til et vist tidsskrift "Public Choice", hvor hendes mand og mentor er redaktionsmedlem.

Update II: Fint sammendrag i Wall Street Journal.
Update III: Ups ... Kom lige i tanke om, at jeg faktisk har publiceret "sammen med" Elinor Ostrom--d.v.s., vi var i 2003 begge bidragydere til dette særnummer til ære for Mancur Olsons studier af kollektive handlingsproblemer.