Dani Rodrik,
Project Syndicate: In Defense of Economic Populism. Populists’ aversion to institutional restraints
extends to the economy, where they oppose obstacles placed in their way by autonomous regulatory
agencies, independent central banks, and global trade rules. But while
populism in the political domain is almost always harmful, economic populism
can sometimes be justified.
Ann Huff Stevens,
Econofacts: Employment and Poverty. Calls to increase
work requirements among those receiving government assistance should recognize
that most poor adults are already working, looking for work, or are disabled or
ill. Increasing work among the poor may require addressing barriers to
work including work-limiting disability or illness. While work may be a policy
goal on its own, requiring work will not necessarily raise families above the
poverty line. Given the level of wages in the lower fifth of the wage
distribution, many workers, especially those who are parents, will need 50
weeks or more of full-time work to reach the poverty line.
Amanda Y. Agan
Michael D. Makowsky, SSRN: The Minimum Wage, EITC, and Criminal Recidivism. For recently
released prisoners, the minimum wage and the availability of state Earned
Income Tax Credits (EITCs) can influence both their ability to find employment
and their potential legal wages relative to illegal sources of income, in turn
affecting the probability they return to prison. Using administrative prison
release records from nearly six million offenders released between 2000 and
2014, we use a difference-in-differences strategy to identify the effect of
over two hundred state and federal minimum wage increases, as well as 21 state
EITC programs, on recidivism. We find that the average minimum wage increase of 8% reduces the
probability that men and women return to prison within 1 year by 2%. This
implies that on average the wage effect, drawing at least some ex-offenders
into the legal labor market, dominates any reduced employment in this
population due to the minimum wage. These reductions in re-convictions
are observed for the potentially revenue generating crime categories of
property and drug crimes; prison reentry for violent crimes are unchanged,
supporting our framing that minimum wages affect crime that serves as a source
of income. The availability of state EITCs also reduces recidivism, but only
for women.
Tamara Li, Nicola
Shadbolt, Thomas Stratton, Gregory Thwaites, BoE: Voting with their wallets?
Consumer expectations after the EU referendum. Consumption growth remained fairly steady in the immediate aftermath
of the UK vote to leave the European Union in June 2016. But how did consumer
expectations evolve in the first months after the referendum? We show with the
Bank’s in-house household survey that ‘Leavers’ became more positive about the economy and their
own financial situation after the referendum, with the opposite true for
‘Remainers’, and that this was reflected in spending by the two groups. But the
size of the effect was small.
Anuschka de Rohan,
Guardian: Why dolphins are deep thinkers. Kelly the dolphin has built up quite a reputation. All the dolphins at
the institute are trained to hold onto any litter that falls into their pools
until they see a trainer, when they can trade the litter for fish. In this way,
the dolphins help to keep their pools clean. Kelly has taken this task one step
further. When people drop
paper into the water she hides it under a rock at the bottom of the pool. The
next time a trainer passes, she goes down to the rock and tears off a piece of
paper to give to the trainer. After a fish reward, she goes back down, tears
off another piece of paper, gets another fish, and so on.
Jean M. Twenge,
The Atlantic Essay: Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? The aim of generational study, however, is not to
succumb to nostalgia for the way things used to be; it’s to understand how they
are now. Some generational changes are positive, some are negative, and many
are both. More comfortable in their bedrooms than in a car or at a party,
today’s teens are physically safer than teens have ever been. They’re markedly
less likely to get into a car accident and, having less of a taste for alcohol
than their predecessors, are less susceptible to drinking’s attendant ills. Psychologically, however, they
are more vulnerable than Millennials were: Rates of teen depression and suicide
have skyrocketed since 2011. It’s not an exaggeration to describe iGen as being
on the brink of the worst mental-health crisis in decades. Much of this
deterioration can be traced to their phones.
Robert Macfarlane,
DW: Crown Shyness - When trees don't want to touch each other. Without a doubt, it's sometimes very worthwhile to
venture out into nature. Not just for of a gulp of fresh air but also because
you may see a very special, instagrammable behavior if only you would raise
your eyes heavenward. If
you look in the right place, you might just spot small and large gaps between
the tops of trees, as if they are somehow trying to avoid touching each other.
Or to put a more positive spin on it: as if the trees are trying to give each
other space. That's nice, isn't it? This is actually a well-documented
phenomenon. It's believed to occur primarily in trees of the same species,
although, the behavior has also been observed across species. Where it occurs,
it's immediately recognizable by the narrow yet clear gaps between the tree
crowns. It looks as though the canopy was torn and moved slightly.
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