July Book Club readings

JEP is liberated

Journal of Economic Perspectives is now available to anyone on line, for free, going back to 1999

via Arnold Kling

Hal Varian's Ely Lecture

Computer Mediated Transactions

E-mail and other tools allow for asynchronous communication over a distance, which allows for optimization of tasks on a global basis. Knowledge work can be subdivided into tasks, much like the physical work in Adam Smith’s pin factory. But even more, those tasks can be exported around the world to where they
can most effectively be performed.

For example, consultants at McKinsey routinely send their PowerPoint slides to Bangalore for beautification. There are many other cognitive tasks of this sort that can be outsourced, including translation, proofreading, document research and so on. Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (Wikipedia 2009a) is an intriguing example of how computers can aid in matching up workers and tasks. As of March 2007 there were reportedly over 100,000 workers from 100 countries who were providing services via the Mechanical Turk (Pontin 2007)

Book Recommendation- Uncommon Sense

Uncommon Sense-Economic Insights, from Marriage to Terrorism
Gary S. Becker and Richard A. Posner

The Chapters will give you a flavor;

I. Sex and Population
1. The Sexual Revolution
2. Gay Marriage
3. Polygamy
4. Sex Selection
5. Immigration Reform
6. Putin’s Population Plan


II. Property Rights
7. Kelo and Eminent Domain
8. Pharmaceutical Patents
9. Grokster, File Sharing, and Contributory Infringement
10. Orphan Drugs, Intellectual Property, and Social Welfare
11. Organ Sales
12. Traffic Congestion
13. Privatizing Highways

III. Universities
14. Plagiarism
15. Tenure
16. For-Profit Colleges
17. Ranking Higher Education

IV. Incentives
18. Fat Tax
19. Trans Fats Ban
20. Libertarian Paternalism
21. Chicago and Big Boxes

V. Jobs and Employment
22. Judicial Term Limits
23. Economics of the Revolving Door
24. CEO Compensation
25. Income Inequality
26. Corporate Social Responsibility

VI. Environment and Disasters
27. Tsunami
28. Major Disasters
29. Federalism, Economics, and Katrina
30. Post-Catastrophe Price Gouging
31. Global Warming and Discount Rates
32. Efficient Water Conservation

VII. Crime and Punishment and Terrorism
33. Capital Punishment
34. Doping Athletes
35. Drunk Driving
36.Internet Gambling
37. Preventive War
38. Ethnic Profiling
39. Privatizing Security
40. Antiterrorism Allocations
41. Collective Punishment

VIII. The World
42. Economic and Political Freedom
43. Size of Countries
44. Hamas, Palestine, and Democracy
45. Google in China
46. Economics of National Culture
47. Microfinance and Development
48. World Inequality
49. Foreign Aid

Assorted

Can a Soda Tax Save Us From Ourselves?

Pelé Remains the Last Word in a Changed World

How to commit the perfect crime

Impact Assessment Meets the Market

"Identity Economics" by George Akerlof and Rachel Kranton: A Rambling Review

High Stakes Innovation

Antibiotic Resistance, A Risk We Don't Worry About Enough

Anchoring

Podcasts
Menand on Psychiatry

We Don't Know How To Solve Global Poverty And That's A Good Thing
Speaker: Professor William Easterly.

Financial Crises And Crisis Economics: Past, Present And Future
Speaker: Professor Nouriel Roubini.

How Much Does Good Management Matter? Evidence From India
Speaker: Professor John Roberts.

The Plundered Planet
Speaker: Professor Paul Collier.

Building Social Business: The New Kind Of Capitalism That Serves Humanity's Most Pressing Needs
Speaker: Professor Muhammad Yunus

The Career-Family Conundrum
Speaker: Professor Claudia Goldin.

India's Economy: Performance And Challenges
Speaker: Shankar Acharya, Isher Ahluwalia, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Surjit Bhalla, Martin Wolf.