To raise fertility, the intensive margin—average family size—matters most. Families respond to lived experiences, and excluding mothers from adult life creates a hold-up. To reverse the decline in births, mothers' happiness is imperative. This requires genuine, not just rhetorical, inclusivity.
Just before I left for China earlier this month, the Englishman whom I told about the adventure quipped that nowadays “Britain is more socialist than China.” Be that as it may, as a theorist I'm trained to understand cause and effect, not judge the big picture. One thing I learnt: there are many markets in … Continue reading Washing the Dishes in China and Coase’s Theory of the Firm
I have to admit that I derive particular pleasure when economists are outright grumpy in their academic writing. Not all wisdom is tame. The following is an excerpt from an article written by 87-year-old Ronald H. Coase, who, when asked why a market-based allocation mechanism for spectrum licenses he had advocated for—decades later raising treasury … Continue reading Coase on ‘the role of stupidity in human affairs’
