Club Troppo

There's something of interest in this piece by Cass Sunstein, Obama's chief of regulation (It has become common to call him 'Regulatory Czar' for some reason - not 'Regulatory Strongman' or 'Regulatory Hulk Hogan', but 'Regulatory Czar'). It speaks not just of the costs of reg...

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In recent years, there have been many reforms to the incentive system that social science academics (those in the fields of economics, finance, psychology, management, health, marketing, etc.) live under in Australia. There was the Research Quality Framework , then the ERA , a...

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Odd that a country like Oz in which economic reform has been such a buzzword, in which economists have, over the last generation had so much influence, have had so little impact on doing something so obviously sensible, which is to move as far as possible from the taxation of...

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Almost as depressing as the evident plagiarism in HillBillySkeleton's post-truth politics post is its unremitting, one-eyed left wing bias. The Political Sword is the ideological mirror image of Andrew Bolt's blog only much less entertaining. The most recent post there is a le...

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When I floated the idea of an infographic wiki the other day I said this. The problem of course is that infographics are created by graphic designers, who are trained to do what they do. Someone in the policy crowd might want to offer their knowledge on an issue in an infograp...

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I have distinctly ambivalent views about Statehood for the Northern Territory, as long-time readers will have noted. I even mused not so long ago about whether the existing grant of self-government should be revoked and other governance models explored instead. More recently I...

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At the Political Sword, HillbillySkeleton is basking in praise for her recent post ' Post-Truth Politics .' "Terrific Hillbilly, just terrific", writes commenter David Horton. Hillbilly's reply is all modesty: Thank you so much for your warm compliments. I am truly flattered....

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Fron Nicholas Eubank via Chris Blattman For years, studies of state formation in early and medieval Europe have argued that the modern, representative state emerged as the result of negotiations between autocratic governments in need of tax revenues and citizens who were only...

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The single thing that could possiby lower emissions in the long term is apparently off the table at present. Assuming that it really matters to lower emissions. It is possible to be skeptical about that and still be in favour of cleaner energy sources. One of the opportunity c...

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Originally posted at The Conversation by Gerry Redmond and Peter Whiteford (Disclosure: Gerry Redmond and Peter whiteford receive funding from the Australian Research Council for a project on "Supporting Families: Horizontal and Vertical Equity in the Australian Tax and Transf...

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This year is the centenary of the handover of control of the Northern Territory to the Commonwealth by South Australia in 1911. It's a fascinating but not very well known story with many dimensions. I was recently asked to deliver a paper to the Northern Territory Historical S...

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I recall my disappointment at the ALP's taking the craze for early childhood intervention in the 2007 election and turning it into a generalised promise for earlier and more kindergarten. Just think of how they could have spent that money on targeted intervention for at risk k...

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HT New Matilda.

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While she admired Winston Churchill, his resistance to conditional welfare was exasperating. For years Beatrice Webb had been arguing with Churchill and other Liberals about social insurance and she was getting nowhere. She insisted that: "Doling out weekly allowances, and wit...

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"States that require dental hygienists to be supervised by dentists suffer a 1 percent annual reduction in the output of dental services." The Effect of Licensing on Dentists and Hygienists by Morris M. Kleiner and Kyoung Won Park, NBER working paper No. 16560. As states requi...

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The Economic Society of Australia is conducting a survey of Australian economists, seeking their opinions about a range of current policy issues, as well as on matters relating to the profession itself. The survey has been emailed to all members of the Society and to those eco...

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If you look at the picture on the left, you'll see a ladder on the upper right window looking at the entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. You may not believe it, but there's more chance than is usually the case with relics that the church is on the right spot. It's lo...

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It's a rainy night and an inexperienced young driver speeds into a sweeping bend. Well over the speed limit he loses control, wrapping his car around a tree. When the ambulance arrives it's touch and go. Unless the paramedics cut him out the wreck and get him to hospital, he'l...

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I am hoping one or more of the economics and public policy gurus who read and write for Troppo might be be able to help me with the following question: Does the Commonwealth Grants Commission analyse and report on the way States and Territories actually spend their untied gran...

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This is a page of links to pdf files of press cuttings from the mid 1980s when the debate about economic reform started to get really vigorous. Some of these are slow to load, so be patient. This is the list of links. It is pretty scary stuff. Have we progressed? Alan Ashbolt,...

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