Category: Economics

A Classic Coase Solution to a Modern Problem: The CrossFit Dispute

A recent Wall Street Journal (“WSJ”) article brought to my attention a very “2K15” problem, urbanites in many of the nation’s big cities are struggling to deal with the annoyance of living next to CrossFit gyms. CrossFit is a highly intense workout regimen which has in the last several years become hugely popular. Many of …

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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2015/06/a-classic-coase-solution-to-a-modern-problem-the-crossfit-dispute/

The Usual Suspect: Greece Again On the Verge of Instigating More Economic Turmoil in Europe

Greece, the problem child of the European Union (“EU”), is living up to its reputation. The EU continues to falter economically, with the peripheral members in various states of recession and with the central and northern nations stagnating or experiencing only minor growth. Overall, as of the beginning of 2015, Europe has not experienced anything …

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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2015/01/the-usual-suspect-greece-again-on-the-verge-of-instigating-more-economic-turmoil-in-europe/

IRS Continues to Overpay Billions on the EITC

In accordance with Executive Order 13520, Reducing Improper Payments and Eliminating Waste in Federal Programs, Federal agencies are accountable for reducing improper payments while still providing access to beneficiaries.  The IRS estimates that the participation rate under the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) was nearly 80 percent, but this comes at a high cost.  A recent …

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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2015/01/irs-continues-to-overpay-billions-on-the-eitc/

Should The Elderly Be Paying More for Movie Tickets?

A recent article in Bloomberg BusinessWeek discussed how in contrast to past generations, American seniors currently make up one of the wealthiest segments of the US population. According to Bloomberg, a combination of strong saving habits (honed from having lived through the Great Depression) and advantageous timing (having come of working age just after WWII …

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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2014/12/should-the-elderly-be-paying-more-for-movie-tickets/

The Multi-Faceted Explanation Behind the Current Drop in Gasoline Prices Across the US

With the national average for ’87 octane descending below $3 a gallon, American drivers are paying less at the pump than they have since the beginning of the Great Recession (in terms of seasonality price, the current average is the lowest since 2009, in terms of absolute pricing, an average gallon of gas hasn’t been …

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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2014/11/the-multi-faceted-explanation-behind-the-current-drop-in-gasoline-prices-across-the-us/

The Popularity Spike of Nobel Prize Winners in the “Dismal Science” has Dismal Staying Power

The announcement of the Nobel Prize winners every October means that at least once a year a handful of economists become relatively popular. We can observe this spike in popularity using web search data reported by Google Trends. The chart below traces each Nobel laureate’s popularity before, during, and after the Prize was announced using …

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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2013/10/popularity-of-nobel-prizewinners-in-the-dismal-science-has-dismal-staying-power/

Government shutdown great for some businesses

I’m occasionally surprised by the variety of anecdotes that support theories of market efficiency and the rapid adaptation of consumer behavior in free economies. The recent government shutdown seems to have introduced one such case. CBS reports that traffic is suddenly booming for “sugar daddy” websites. The news organization quotes folks at seekingarrangement.com and whatsyourprice.com …

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It costs $241,080 to raise a child and other reasons why averages can be completely uninformative

A popular news service reported that it costs $241,080 to raise a child and then remarked, “the cost of raising a child is climbing at a rate that many families can’t keep up with.” The news agency cites falling wages and lower employment rates as support for this struggle to keep up. A host of …

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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2013/10/it-costs-241080-to-raise-a-child-and-other-reasons-why-averages-can-be-completely-uninformative/

Government Shutdown, What to Expect

It is Tuesday, October 1, 2013 and Congress has not been able to reach a compromise on a funding bill that could get the government running again.  One of the major stumbling blocks is the long-running dispute regarding President Obama’s health care reform law (commonly referred to as Obamacare).  The House would like Obamacare to …

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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2013/10/government-shutdown-what-to-expect/

The Baby Name “Market” is becoming more Fragmented

According to the Social Security Administration (SSA), there have been over 91,000 different names given to babies since 1880 in the US. We can think of the process of naming children as a market activity. The “market” consists of parents (i.e. consumers) who select a name (i.e. product) from a wide assortment of options. For …

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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2013/08/the-baby-name-market-is-becoming-more-fragmented/