Selecting candidates for membership of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) based primarily on their political views would lead to worse monetary policy outcomes than has been the case over the last 15 years.
The admission of children of alumni and donors at elite private colleges and universities crowds out applicants with greater academic potential.
Responses
The net effect of admitting children of alumni and donors (including any impact on donations and any losses of other high potential applicants) is likely to be a reduction in the contribution of colleges and universities to society.
Responses
When more affluent people move into an urban neighborhood, the influx can raise house prices and the value of local amenities, leading to the displacement of long-time lower-income residents – a process sometimes known as gentrification. We invited our European panel of economic experts to express their views on whether governments in Europe should be doing more to counter this phenomenon via a range of housing market policies.
A common European deposit insurance scheme, once fully implemented, would increase the stability of European economies in the event of another financial crisis.
A common European deposit insurance scheme, once fully implemented, would increase the likelihood of another financial crisis in Europe.
In January this year, Senator Elizabeth Warren unveiled a proposal to tax the wealth of the richest 0.1% of Americans. The proposed legislation to tax households with a net worth of $50 million or more draws on analysis by one of our US panel of economic experts – Emmanuel Saez at Berkeley – showing that the richest 0.1% has seen its share of American wealth more than triple from 7% to 22% since the late 1970s. Saez and colleagues have also made calculations of the potential impact of Senator Warren’s proposed tax.
A) Forcing Amazon to divest Whole Foods now would be in the public interest.
B) Acquisitions by large tech platforms where there are risks of anti-competitive effects like those posed by Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods should not be permitted.
C) Large tech platforms, such as Amazon Marketplace and Google Search, should be designated as ‘platform utilities' and broken apart from any participant on that platform.
A) Overall, public spending on the arts in Europe creates benefits that exceed the deadweight loss caused by taxation to fund it.
B) Additional public spending on the arts in Europe would create incremental benefits that exceed the deadweight loss caused by taxation to fund it.
‘Modern monetary theory’ (MMT) – the idea that a country that is able to borrow in its own currency need not worry about government deficits and debt – has been all over the economics and finance media in recent weeks. This approach to macroeconomics, which has been used to underpin calls for new public spending programs, has been debated widely in newspaper columns, blog posts and tweets – often in quite vitriolic ways.
A) The average European is better off if Europe’s competition authorities let firms merge into European champions in their sectors, even it weakens competition.
B) If China and other countries use policies that create giant international firms, then the average European is better off if Europe's competition authorities let firms merge into European champions in their sectors, even it weakens competition.
A) When local governments compete by offering subsidies to a firm that is willing to relocate, and shopping across multiple alternative areas, the firm typically captures most of value that is created via the relocation.
B) A federal prohibition against states and municipalities offering tax subsidies to attract specific businesses that are shopping across multiple areas to relocate would be welfare improving for the average taxpayer.