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Why Germany is right to "hold Europe ransom"
As I've stated in an earlier post, my recent trip to Germany has been full of positive experiences. Most importantly I gained insight into why Germany (i.e. its formal institutions) feels so strongly...
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Hits and misses: Evaluation of last year's predictions
As 2014 is coming to an end, this is a good time to wrap up the year and look back at some of the events that passed us by, but most importantly it's a good time to present a quick overview of the...
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2015: Back to Realpolitik and back to growth
Well, well, well, it seems the Cold War era is back upon us. And I'm not just saying this as a consequence of a holiday season James Bond movie marathon that I watched. No, it's real, or to be more...
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Being an economist
A few months back The Economist had a great text about economists and how they are, apparently, getting too big for their britches. Here's a few excerpts: "...Despite their collective failure to...
View Article'Good hunches': Predictions on Greece
On a few previous occasions I've found myself praising 'good hunches' of certain economists on being right about a number of predictions for the future (see here and here for example). There's also...
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Greek game theory: You can fool the voters but not the financial markets
Back in November 2011 an increase of Italian bond yields for the third time in three months and for the first time above the critical boundary of 7%, resulted in an abrupt and surprising resignation of...
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The Greek reform plan: an epilogue of the Greek tragedy?
It's been a rough few weeks, but Europe and Greece have finally reached an agreement. Or to be more precise, the Greeks have caved in to the demands of the financial markets, just as I predicted they...
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Graph of the week: Returns to education
Is higher education worth it? According to the latest report from PayScale (HT: The Economist), the answer is: it depends on what you study. An obvious answer, but let's look at the data...
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Rent-seeking explained: Removing barriers to entry in the taxi market
The taxi market is undoubtedly one of the best examples of something economists like to call rent-seeking. What does this phenomenon stand for and why do economists (particularly political economists)...
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Graph of the week: Happy, happy Europe
From the Economist, calling upon a report from Eurostat: what drives happiness in Europe and how heterogeneous European countries tend to be when it comes to the satisfaction with their living...
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Immigration helps the natives
At some point in the middle of 2014, opinion polls in the UK revealed that immigration became the most important issue in Britain (see graph below), surpassing even the debates on the economy (probably...
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Eurozone challenges
Here's an excellent infographic from Boston University explaining in one place and with much detail why the crisis in Europe is still a long way from being over: Boston University OnlineIf I had to sum...
View ArticleVideo: How would a Nobel prize winner run the economy?
From LSE's You Tube channel:LSE's Nobel professor Christopher Pissarides is being 'grilled' by Conor Gearty in his Gearty Grillings. The short video surprisingly includes a lot of good ideas on the...
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In memoriam: John Nash
It is with great sorrow to report the news that one of the greatest minds in human history died yesterday in a car crash with his wife while they were returning home from an airport. John Forbes Nash...
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Austerity (and inequality) in corrupt countries - a conference with Joe Stiglitz
This week I had an opportunity to attend an international conference "Challenges of Europe: Growth, competitiveness and inequality", where the keynote speakers were none other than 2001 Nobel prize...
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A hard time for Keynesians?
I haven't made any comments on the results of the 2015 UK elections (and by now it's a bit late), even though I'm pleased to say I was correct in predicting its final outcome back in January. I say...
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A turbulent summer, an even more turbulent autumn
As you may have noticed, blogging has been particularly slow over the past few months. From the beginning of the year as well, compared to previous years. This is due to a number of commitments I have...
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Angus Deaton wins the 2015 Nobel prize in economics
Over the past two weeks, in the same schedule as always, we had the opportunity to enjoy the announcements of Nobel prize winners. Last but not least was the Nobel prize in economics (or to be more...
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"Does the Wage Gap between Private and Public Sectors Encourage Political...
A paper of mine (co-authored with Boris Podobnik and H. Eugene Stanley) got published in PLOS ONE! Since PLOS is an open-access journal you can read the whole paper here.It is primarily a theoretical...
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In memoriam: Douglass North
Douglass C. North, one of the greatest economists of our time, a Nobel prize winner responsible for reinventing institutional economics, died this week at the age of 95. His passing follows those of...
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