Quoted in NPR on fracking story

Link here

Rousu was quick to point out that he disagrees with Wolf on many issues. For example, he’s not convinced the state needs a new tax on gas production.

“I think they’re doing a lot of things wrong.” Rousu says of the Wolf administration. “But this change seems pretty reasonable to me. The previous jobs number did seem high. But 90,000 is an enormous number. It’s 1.5 percent of workers in the state.”

Proper benefit-cost analysis when taking death penalty positions

Story here on murderers who escaped from prison

Excerpt:

In a sensational “Shawshank Redemption”-style prison break, a pair of cunning convicted murderers used power tools and tunnels to escape an upstate maximum-security penitentiary near the Canadian border.

A massive manhunt was underway Saturday after killers Richard Matt, 48, and David Sweat, 34, were discovered missing from the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, about 25 miles from Canada, officials said.

The inmates made their extraordinary dash to freedom after faking out guards with makeshift dummies made out of hooded sweatshirts to appear as if they were still sleeping inside their cells. And once officials discovered they were gone, they found a note from convicts telling them to "Have a nice day!"

When people argue about whether society should have a death penalty, sometimes the argument is strictly based on moral arguments.  But when it is not, sometimes the costs of the death penalty are brought up, and usually by those opposed to the death penalty as the costs of imposing the death penalty are high.

I don't buy into this argument against the death penalty, however, as the reason it is high is precisely because death penalty opponents use (and abuse?) the legal process to drag out appeals for decades. Regardless, some will use this argument to say that life-in-prison sentences should be used instead of going for the death penalty.

However, one thing that is rarely considered in these arguments is that when someone isn't executed, there is a non-trivial chance they'll murder again.  This can happen within the prison or, like the story above, when prisoners escape.

A true benefit cost analysis should factor in that "life in prison" for a convict really means "will probably spend life in prison".

Learning Economics Through Pictures - The Egg Shortage

Source - Twitter feed of Ezra Company (I think it is a Penn State student of Jadrian Wooten and James Tierney).

My appearance on Economic Rockstar podcast

I went on the Economics Rockstar Podcast recently with Frank Conway and had a great time.

The link is here.

I hadn't heard much of this podcast before, but was extremely impressed with his preparation prior to our talk and his interviewing ability.  We had a 45-minute chat that seemed like it was 5-minutes.  I've since listened to some of his back episodes, which I recommend.

Guidelines for Conducting Economic Impact Studies on Fracking

My newest paper is titled "Guidelines for Conducting Economic Impact Studies on Fracking" and was recently published in International Advances in Economic Research.  This is collaborative work with Dave Ramsaran (a sociologist at Susquehanna University) and Dylan Furlano (2014 graduate from Susquehanna University).

Here is the abstract:

In recent years, many studies have attempted to estimate the economic impact of fracking. When done properly, economic impact studies can be valuable to both policy makers and researchers. Unfortunately, the quality of these economic impact studies varies. Often times these studies are released with obvious errors or authors clearly exhibit bias either for or against fracking. In this paper, we briefly review the studies that have estimated the economic impact of fracking. We discuss many of the issues researchers face when attempting to estimate the economic impact of fracking, and provide recommendations to those who wish to conduct these studies in the future.

Romney on Obama (on International Trade)

A nice note from Mitt Romney's facebook feed:

Economists overwhelmingly agree freer international trade is good for society.  Many Americans oppose free trade, however.  That's unfortunate, because free trade is good for America.  It will help Americans, both rich and poor, live better lives.

On top of that, free trade is the single greatest thing we can do to help poor people in other countries.  When we buy products from third world countries, they build new factories and employ workers.  This makes those in impoverished countries better off, and is far more effective and sustainable than virtually any other "solution" that's provided to help the poor.

Textbook Confessions: Government Failure

Textbook Confessions: Government Failure.  That's the title of an article recently published in The Journal of Private Enterprise by Eyzaguirre, Ferrarimi, and O'Roark.  Here's the abstract:

What students learn in the Principles of Economics course may become the permanent lens through which they view and understand how the economy works. While most textbooks cover a core of material in a consistent manner, the same cannot be said for the treatment of government failure. We review twelve principles of economics textbooks to analyze the treatment given to government failure. Our analysis shows that authors fall short in adequately addressing this topic, thereby exposing students to the fallacy that government is the solution to market failure and drawing dangerously close to the line between positive and normative analysis.

The rationale for the paper is straightforward.  While almost all textbooks have detailed sections on how markets can fail, the just-as-important coverage of how governments fail is often lacking.  If students in economics only learn about how markets fail and not governments, they'll get a distorted view of the world. 

In their analysis, they found big differences in coverage across textbooks.  One fact I found surprising is that Mankiw, a Republican, covered government failures less than Baumol and Blinder, who are Democrats (or at least worked for them).  I was not surprised that Krugman's book ignored government failures completely. 

The whole paper is very readable, and their paper is motivating me to create and post lecture videos on government failures for my courses.  I'll post links to the lectures when they're available.