"Marginal Revolution" posts
I'm finding myself linking to posts over at the new blog Marginal Revolution a lot these days. But here are two new ones:
Tyler Cowen links to a Stephen Landsburg column at Slate highlighting research that suggests that couples who have girls are more likely to divorce. Apparently the the more daughters, the more likely. Moreover, there is evidence that the effect is cross-cultural. For more, I'll refer you to Landsburg, by way of Cowen's posting, here: "Do girls cause divorce?"
Cowen also points out that the time available for talking in meetings is a common property resource and suggests a way to increase efficency through privatization, here: "Shutting up talkers". Cowen also links, in this post, to a short, and startling, essay by one Robin Hanson on "Fourteen Wild Ideas Five Of Which Are True!". Number two is:
- "If medicine were taxed so much that people only bought half as much, they would be just as healthy.
In the 1970s, the RAND Health Insurance Experiment randomly assigned 5000 adults to free or full-price health care over 3-5 years. Free care folks got more eyeglasses and teeth filled, and spent ~30% more, but were otherwise no healthier. This result is consistent with typical time-series and cross-sectional analyses. I'm willing to extrapolate from this 30% change to a 50% cut. (More here.)"
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