behavioral economy
“going green” won’t save us
A recent article by Washington Post staff writer Michael Rosenwald hits on a great point about the tendency to over-consume after “going green”, ‘Purchasing green products may license indulgence in self-interested and unethical behaviors.’ Local home-appliance and building contractors who specialize in green products see examples of such indulgence almost every day. They have begun [...]
why we consume alcohol
This is definitely the most brilliant economics paper I’ve read in a while. First the abstract, It is argued that drug consumption, most commonly alcohol drinking, can be a technology to give up some control over one’s actions and words. It can be employed by trustworthy players to reveal their type. Similarly alcohol can function [...]
the high cost of free parking
Loved this short little documentary (~8 mins) on why regulations requiring free parking are a bane to society. Key takeaways from this example in Auckland: There will always be too much parking because the parking capacity is designed for 15% peak scenarios, meaning 85% of the time there is way more than enough parking. Free [...]
how much does the earth control the stock market?
Global financial stock markets are curious things. So curious in fact, that we need to determine the effect of geomagnetic fields on the indices. An awesome paper from Anna Krivelyova and Cesare Robotti of the Federal Reserve Board of Atlanta in 2003 proposes a link between geomagnetic fields and stock market performance. The evidence presented [...]
