News for Nur. Stuff that's neat.
Section: Economics
Saturday, November 7, 2026

The new Journal of Economic Perspectives is out, and free as ever

Posted by Captain Queso on Saturday November 7, 2026 @7:06AM in Economics
from the open-access-economy dept.

Timothy Taylor has edited every issue of this journal since 1987, and his announcement doubles as a tasting menu: titles, abstracts, and a promise to blog about a few papers soon. The opener, on how US colleges sort students by test scores and spend accordingly, is exactly the calm, data-first kind of economics this feed likes. Everything back to issue one is free to read.

Timothy Taylor announces the Fall 2026 issue of the Journal of Economic Perspectives, which the American Economic Association has made freely available along with its full archive. His post lists each paper with its abstract, starting with a study of stratification and spending in American higher education.
Read the rest of this story (Conversable Economist)
Thursday, November 5, 2026

Timothy Taylor on the Social Security shortfall he saw coming in 1982

Posted by Captain Queso on Thursday November 5, 2026 @6:47AM in Economics
from the actuaries-did-warn-us dept.

Taylor at his most usefully dry: a man who left college in 1982, watched the 1983 fix get made, and has now arrived at the exact date it was always going to run out. No thesis to sell, only arithmetic and a mild wish that politicians would say what they plan to do about it. The shortfall is large, the surprise is nil.

Timothy Taylor traces the trajectory set by the 1983 Social Security fix: a trust fund built up for people retiring from the early 2000s, then a return to promised benefits outrunning revenue. Actuaries put the gap at about 29 trillion dollars over the next 75 years, and he looks at what current law implies if nobody acts.
Read the rest of this story (Conversable Economist)
Wednesday, November 4, 2026

Do elections have market failures too?

Posted by Captain Queso on Wednesday November 4, 2026 @12:36PM in Economics
from the invisible-ballot dept.

Timothy Taylor doing what he does best: one paper, no thesis to sell. The neat move is pointing the intro-econ toolkit at voting itself, so an informed electorate becomes a public good that gets underprovided, just like basic research. Whatever you make of the conclusions, it's a tidy way to see an old problem without anyone shouting.

Taylor walks through a paper by Jason Brennan and Christopher Freiman arguing that familiar market failures have counterparts in democratic elections, including public goods and poor information. If those problems justify rules for markets, they suggest, they also bear on how elections are governed.
Read the rest of this story (Conversable Economist)
Tuesday, November 3, 2026

Tocqueville on why prosperous Americans seemed so restless

Posted by Captain Queso on Tuesday November 3, 2026 @12:41PM in Economics
from the fear-of-missing-out-since-1840 dept.

Timothy Taylor marks Election Day not with a hot take but with a Frenchman's chapter from 1840, which is about the most soothing way available to think about it. Tocqueville's point that small inequalities sting most once equality is the norm has aged annoyingly well. Economics by way of a very long view.

Taylor revisits a chapter of Democracy in America asking why Americans, well off by French standards of the 1830s, seemed so restless and melancholy. Tocqueville points to materialism, the fear of missing out that comes with mobility, and how a desire for equality sharpens both.
Read the rest of this story (Conversable Economist)