Wrap Up for February 2017

From a recent workshop including Eric Beinhocker Listen to the populists and provide new answers.

On the long term decline in labour market fluidity

A report from the Economic Innovation Group: Dynamism in Retreat
Also, James Pethokoukis provides highlights from "Dynamism in Retreat"

Can infrastructure win "hearts and minds"?

How to approach some of the larger problems which people don't take seriously?

What is manufacturing? Why does the definition matter? (Marc Levinson)

(George Will) Trump Sides with the Sheriffs on Their Racket

There is no reasons for the sheriffs to want to reform a racket that lines their pockets. For the rest of us, strengthening the rule of law and eliminating moral hazard are each sufficient reasons.

It's been almost twenty years since Virginia Postrel wrote "The Future and Its Enemies" and the problem of stasis remains. Is this where the greatest polarization lies?
https://www.aei.org/publication/dynamism-or-stasis-which-will-america-choose-a-qa-with-virginia-postrel/

In "Average is Over for regional job creation", Arnold Kling writes:

As the seekers of natural monopoly gravitate toward big cities, the licensed professionals and the monopolistic competitors follow, because that is where spending on services is high. Tax revenue is high there also, which helps to generate government jobs.

How difficult will it be to shift into the digital era?

The composition of debt has changed.

What makes suburban poverty difficult to confront?

When local resources are already stretched thin, rural areas may not be supportive of charter schools. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2017/02/21/gop-rifts-over-school-choice/

RIP Kenneth Arrow:

http://news.stanford.edu/2017/02/21/nobel-prize-winner-kenneth-arrow-dies/
http://timharford.com/2017/02/kenneth-arrow-economist-1921-2017/
https://afinetheorem.wordpress.com/2017/02/22/the-greatest-living-economist-has-passed-away-notes-on-kenneth-arrow-part-i/
https://afinetheorem.wordpress.com/2017/02/27/kenneth-arrow-part-ii-the-theory-of-general-equilibrium/

Timothy Taylor:

The high costs of healthcare are not just an issue for the United States, but for countries all over the world.

Daniel Susskind questions the optimism regarding technological change on the labour market.
http://www.danielsusskind.com/research

Arthur Brooks writes about the dignity of employment.

More on the declining U.S. labour share.

Early American colonists and the cash problem.

"Big government in America today is both debt-financed and proxy-administered."

Robots continue to move up the pay scale.

"We find that diminished allocative efficiency gains can account for the productivity slowdown in a manner that interacts with the within-firm productivity growth distribution."