Elephantstrunk

Marginal Revolution: Microfoundations of slow European growth
European industries seem to have higher entry costs, and with them lower turnover rates: 50% of new pharmaceutical products in America come from firms less than ten years old, against only 10% in Europe; 12% of the biggest US firms by market cap at the end of the 1990s […]

Sat 04/11/2006 11:51 More than I can remember seeing for a while.

Tyler Cowen reviews a book that, he argues, counters Guns, Germs & Steel.
Marginal Revolution: What makes a nation wealthy?
What makes a nation wealthy?
Economists typically explain the wealth of a nation by pointing to good policies and the quality of a country’s institutions. But why do these differences exist in the first place?
Professor Greg Clark […]

Elephants can recognise themselves in mirrors.

For a while the Prius made driving a fuel efficient car cool, or at least the kind of thing a Hollywood actor of a certain kind might do. It’s an ugly car but it’s hybrid technology wasn’t available with 4 doors anywhere else. Like iPods you didn’t get a flash one or a cheap one, […]

Fairtrade coffee probably wouldn’t exist in an ideal world and neither its results nor its implementation are ideal. It would be much better not to have to choose coffee on any criteria but price and taste but alternative routes to development for coffee growers have had plenty of time to work and failed to deliver. […]

Oil prices aren’t determined by supply of oil. That’s one of the conclusions Dave Cohen reaches in his extensive essay on oil prices. James Hamilton seems convinced:

Econbrowser: Is peak oil irrelevant?
Is peak oil irrelevant?
Does the market price of oil reflect a recognition that the resource is fundamentally limited?
Dave Cohen, writing at the Oil Drum, […]

Rwanda’s economy is expanding quickly. And coffee exports are helping fuel it.
Since 1995, the country has often achieved 7 percent annual growth. This year, coffee surpassed tea as the country’s biggest export, bringing growing prosperity to the country’s 500,000 coffee farmers. One group of 20,000 farmers saw revenues of about $800,000 last year, says Dr. […]

A serious problem for the effectiveness of school choice:
Mergers between schools are almost as unsuccessful as tie-ups in the corporate world with 55 per cent leading to lower educational standards. By comparison, 50-70 per cent of company mergers fail to achieve their objectives and, on average, lead to a 10 per cent fall in share […]

Mary Ann Sieghart’s article in the the Times is quite reasonable for an article by, for and about Tories on the subject of tax but this paragraph has the beginnings of a personality cult.
But Mr Osborne is playing a shrewd strategic game. He, like Mr Cameron and George Bridges (political director of the party), was […]