Groningen, a.d. IV Kal. Nov. MMDCCLXXI A.U.C., As I described in my last post, it is quite common for conservative parties to draw away attention from poverty and inequality, and instead to focus on issues such as family values, public decency, jingoism, safety or migration. I also argued that the Conservatives in the UK are... Continue Reading →
Amsterdam, a.d. III Id. Oct. MMDCCLXXI A.U.C., The Conservative party in the UK runs a serious risk of splitting into two different parties. While combining populism with an economically right-wing programme has a long pedigree, the situation the Conservative party finds itself in is more fraught with risk than that. Having been the party of free trade... Continue Reading →
Groningen, a.d. XIV Kal. Oct. MMDCCLXXI A.U.C., Toerisme is zowel een bron van inkomsten als een last. Terwijl de toerist geniet van zijn vrije tijd en de toerismesector zijn welverdiende brood hieraan verdient, is de omgeving, die om dit alles niet gevraagd heeft, de klos. De toerismebelasting kan uitkomst brengen. Dit betoogt COELO-onderzoeker Joes... Continue Reading →
Groningen, a.d. XVI Kal. Sept. MMDCCLXXI A.U.C., Voor het eerst kan iedere Nederlander nu zonder moeite zien hoeveel hij of zij moet betalen aan gemeente, provincie en waterschap. Vandaag presenteert het Centrum voor Onderzoek van de Economie van de Lagere Overheden (COELO) van de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen de eerste uitgebreide Lokale Lasten Calculator. Hiermee zijn de lokale... Continue Reading →
Groningen, a.d. X Kal. Aug. MMDCCLXXI, A.U.C., Worldwide poverty has been falling over the last few decades. 150 years ago every country in the world was a developing country with raging epidemics and widespread poverty. Fortunately that has been much reduced. Meanwhile, however, inequality may be larger than ever. The middle class in developed countries... Continue Reading →
Somewhere between Almere and Amsterdam, prid Id. Jul. MMDCCLXXI A.U.C. As a frequent traveler between Groningen (job at the university there) and the area around Leiden (friends, family) I often use the train. Unfortunately the rail connection between the North of the country and the west is highly unstable, so I often have long delays.... Continue Reading →
Groningen, Non. Jul. MMDCCLXXI A.U.C., A former prof of mine recently posted this interesting blog post on the relation between risk and the gender pay gap. In short, he argues the following. As an employer it is easy to not hire women, or to offer lower wage, when they get pregnant, because it is very... Continue Reading →
Groningen, a.d. III Kal. Jul. MMDCCLXXI A.U.C., Currently I am reading the Federalist Papers, which defend the new constitution of the United States of America in 1787, at the same time as reading Authoritarianism and the Elite Origins of Democracy by Albertus and Menaldo. Reading them together gave me a new insight (others probably have thought it... Continue Reading →
Groningen, a.d. x Kal. Junias MMDCCLXXI A.U.C. One of the most baffling things I have encountered in social science is what might be dubbed the rationality paradox: put a few rational individuals together and watch the world burn, yet put irrational people together and they can collectively be quite rational. Examples abound, put to keep... Continue Reading →
