Economist Channel

The purpose of this post (which I am updating from time to time) is to start a discussion online and in the research centre about historical works (say pre-1960) that are most worthwhile to read for people interested in contemporary behavioural science and behavioural economics debates. The remit is probably too broad to be wholly coherent but if it...

A VAT (value added tax) with no other tax — no income, corporate, estate, etc. etc. etc. — is pretty much the economists’ ideal. But how do you make it progressive? A bright — or perhaps lunatic— idea occurred to me.A progressive VATEveryone pays the maximum VAT rate — 40% say, equal to the maximum marginal federal income tax rate. Then, as you spend...

See below for two research posts working with colleagues at UCD:(i) Vacancy for Research Scientist in UCD; we are seeking a researcher to contribute to an Irish Research Council (Research for Policy & Society) funded project about understanding well-owners perceptions and awareness of flooding, and informing policy to increase preparedness to reduce...

Luigi Zingales inaugurated a series of essays in Il Sole 24 Ore, an Italian newspaper, on whether Italy should stay in or get out of the Euro, and graciously asked me to contribute. My view, here in English, here in Italian.To be clear, I kept to Luigi's terms of the debate. This piece is only about whether Italy is better off in the long run, with...

These are comments I gave on "Inflating away the public debt? An empirical assessment" by Jens Hilscher, Alon Aviv, and Ricardo Reis at the Becker-Friedman Institute Government Debt: Constraints and Choices conference, April 22 2017, along with generic comments on the conference...

2017  PhD Conference in Behavioural Science  Thursday, the 30th of November 2017UCD Geary Institute for Public PolicyThe UCD Geary Institute for Public Policy is pleased to announce our PhD Student Conference in Behavioural Science for 2017 in collaboration with...

The first issue of the new Journal of Behavioural Economics for Policy is available here, See the papers below. Along with the new Behavioral Public Policy journal mentioned in the previous post, this makes a substantial addition to the development of this field.Behavioral economics: from advising organizations to nudging individuals(90 kB) Floris...

Òscar Jordà, Björn Richter, Moritz Schularick, and Alan Taylor wrote a provocative What has bank capital ever done for us? at VoxEu, advertising the underlying paper Bank Capital Redux  (NBER, CEPR link here, google if you can't access either of those)It starts...

The new journal "Behavioural Public Policy" edited by Adam Oliver, Cass Sunstein, and George Akerlof is a very welcome addition to the intellectual environment in this area. Forthcoming article titles for 2017 are below, including many leading figures in the field.Sarah Conly: ‘Paternalism, Coercion, and the Unimportance of (Some) Liberties’.Shaun...

The Society for the Advancement of Behavioural Economics (SABE) has a new website and twitter page. I will be the country representative for Ireland and we will work with SABE to coordinate the events we are hosting here with the wider global network. SABE is also taking submissions for the recently formed Journal of Behavioural Economics for...

Commentators seem to have noticed a lot of the economics  of the United fiasco: Yes, don't stop auctions at $800. (WSJ review and outlook.) Yes, if you need employees at Louisville so badly, call up American and buy a first class ticket. Book a private jet. Or, heck, you're an airline. Bring up another plane. Don't drag people off planes to save...

It’s a great pleasure to have Professor Till Grüne-Yanoff from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm in Stirling on Tuesday April 11. He will give a talk on Tuesday this week (11th April 2017) at 2pm. He will focus on “Boosts” whose objective is to foster people’s competence to make their own choices. The talk will take place in the Stirling...

1. See this link for some details of our new behavioural science and policy group at UCD2. See this link for information on part-time and/or employer sponsored options for our new MSc in Behavioural Economics3. We are currently advertising a 2-year postdoctoral position with a closing date of May 31st 20174. There are a number of PhD scholarships available...

I posted before on a remarkable quotation from the Treatise of Human Nature. The quote captures beautifully one of the core areas of behavioural economics, namely present bias and the role of various mechanisms to promote future oriented and otherwise productive decision-making. "In...