Category Archives: United States

A nice The New York Times story on Seattle that prompted this roundup (HT:Bill Sundstrom): “In their latest paper, which has not been formally peer reviewed, Mr. Vigdor and his colleagues considered how the minimum-wage increases affected three broad groups: … Continue reading →

Here is a Brookings Institution report:  “The 2016 Nobel prize-winner in Economics, Oliver Hart, and coauthors explained that prison contracts tend to induce the wrong incentives by focusing on specific tasks such as accreditation requirements and hours of staff training … Continue reading →

My response to a friend and neighbor: “I have no problem with 3-4 story housing all along the corridors, throughout the city, and higher heights on larger lots like the old hospital site. So when the planner you quoted gave … Continue reading →

A good The New Yorker introduction to very recent (October 2018) policy issue of naturalization of permanent residents (green card holders). Hanson, Liu and McIntosh on immigration to the US by low-skilled young workers. Abstract: From the 1970s to the … Continue reading →

Heather O’Connell and Robert Reece find sizable correlation of extent of slavery with public school enrollment and attendance in the present (see summary here): Drawing from our regression analysis, we argue that slavery history shaped the local social structure in … Continue reading →

The Census Bureau a couple of weeks ago released an update on the U.S. economy for 2017. The headline was that real median household income had increased by 2.6 percent, and was about $61,000, and the poverty rate was 12.3%. … Continue reading →