I am leaving Ohio State University after 23 years, and moving on.
If you want to continue reading my blog, my new personal website is located at http://blogs.bu.edu/zagorsky/. I will also continue publishing on TheConversation. Thanks for reading my articles!
During the summer of 2018 I am bicycling across America. I am blogging about it daily at a different website. You can click here or just type in the following URL http://blogs.bu.edu/zagorsky to follow the journey.
Recently voters in Washington D.C. voted for Initiative 77. The vote was not particularly close: 55% voted for the initiative and 45% voted against it. The initiative changes minimum wage laws in the District two ways. First, it increases the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2020 and then boosts the minimum wage by inflation after that. Second, the initiative slowly increases the minimum wage for tipped employees so that by 2026 they receive the same minimum wage as any other worker. Continue reading Why Initiative 77 Does Not Mean the End of Tipping
Is poverty growing or shrinking around the world? The World Bank a few months ago released new data to answer this question. The picture from the new data is very heartening. The number of poor people around the globe is rapidly shrinking. Continue reading What Percent of the World is in Poverty?
The Supreme Court on May 14 struck down a 25-year federal ban on sports betting outside of Nevada. The big question on many minds – particular state officials and companies like MGM Resorts and DraftKings looking to cash in – is how much money is at stake. Many of the articles on the decision cite the same eye-popping figure: Americans wager an estimated US$150 billion in illegal sports bets every year. Continue reading How big will the market be for betting on sports?
The latest jobs report has gotten a lot of analysts, policymakers and talking heads once again asking whether the U.S. is at full employment.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on May 4 that the U.S. unemployment rate fell to 3.9 percent, which is the lowest level since December 2000. The unemployment rate includes anyone 16 or older who is actively searching for work in its calculation, which means students, retirees and others not in the labor force are excluded. Continue reading Is the USA at full employment now?
You can buy insurance for practically anything these days. Planning a vacation to France? Your airline, travel agent or even hotel will likely offer trip insurance in case you need to change your dates or cancel. Going to the casino? You can insure your blackjack hand in case it’s not your lucky day.
Recently, I was even asked if I wanted to pay US$20 to insure a pair of $80 ice skates beyond the three-month warranty or $12 to protect a $40 television cable for a “lifetime” of protection – a quarter of each product’s price in exchange for extra “peace of mind.” But is it really worth paying the extra money? Here’s how an economist like me would answer that question. Continue reading Should you insure that trip or TV? Here’s what an economist would do
My investigation on changes in the price of going to the prom in the Wall Street Jorurnal (see here) got a number of comments and emails. The most interesting email came from Marie Concannon. She is one of the head librarians at the University of Missouri. Ms. Concannon created a web site called “Prices and Wages by Decade” (click here). It contains links to the retail prices for all sorts of things that people buy like food, clothing, transportation, housing and education. Continue reading Wow, high end restaurants have changed what they serve over time!
Today’s Wall Street Journal has an article discussing my Prom Price Index (article is here). For those of you who are new readers, I have been creating an index that tracks the change in the price of going to the Prom since 2014. The updated 2018 index is found on this blog under the “Data Files” heading or by clicking here. Continue reading The Prom and the Wall Street Journal
The NBA playoffs are about to begin. Sports announcers and writers again will hype the game, especially long shots from outside the three point arc. The common refrain I hear is that teams should take more 3 pointers because they are worth 50% more than 2 pointers.
This statement while factually correct is just plain wrong. Continue reading Should NBA Teams Really Shoot More 3s?
The world is an uncertain and risky place. The news constantly bombards us with scary situations from school shootings to gruesome murders. Risk is everywhere and associated with everything. For example, the Center for Disease Control a decade ago estimated over 20 million people a year ended up in emergency rooms because of bathroom injuries. Continue reading How to deal with life’s risks more rationally
The current issue (Spring 2018) of Ohio State’s alumni magazine has a two page interview with me (click here for the online version). Alumni were asked to send in any kind of question about the economy. My favorite question was by Kamilah King class of 2011, who asked “What are some of the basic economics concepts or principles that you wish students were taught before attending college?”
Today’s Wall Street Journal (March. 19, 2017, page R1; online version is here) printed an article I wrote. They asked me to be part of a debate on “Should the U.S. Retire the Penny and Nickel?” I took the “no” side. This is a follow on article from the piece I wrote for TheConversation back in August 2017 (see the original piece here) that advocated the same idea. Because of space limits the Wall Street Journal edited down my piece. Below is the unedited version: Continue reading Should We Get Rid of the Penny?
The annual college basketball spectacle known as March Madness has arrived. Millions of people will tune in to the three-week tournament to see who’s the best team in the U.S. And millions more will wager a few bucks to take part in an office pool in which they try to pick the winner. Even presidents have been known to take part in the madness. But behind the hype is a lot of cash. Just as journalists are trained to follow the money, so are economists like me. So let’s take a closer look. Continue reading What is March Madness – and the nonprofit that manages the mayhem?
Today’s (Feb. 2, 2018) Wall Street Journal had an amazing article by Jo Craven McGinty (click here) that shows people hear better with their right ear than with their left ear. Continue reading Do you know the best way talk or listen?
Does going to college make students into political liberals? Conservative activists have claimed that universities brainwash students and indoctrinate them into believing a liberal ideology. The line of reasoning goes like this: Liberal college professors tell students “what to think,” and “what to think” is that conservatives and their positions are to be dismissed. A state lawmaker in Iowa has even suggested universities consider political affiliation in connection with hiring practices in order to balance out the distribution of political representation on the faculty. Continue reading Does college turn people into liberals?
In a speech at the 2018 World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland, French President Emmanuel Macron said he wanted to “make France a model in the fight against climate change” and promised to shut all coal-fired power plants by 2021 – two years earlier than the timetable put forward by his predecessor.
While Macron’s move is mainly symbolic since France only generates about 2.2 percent of its power from coal, it signals his government is actively trying to wean itself off fossil fuels in sharp contrast to the current policy of his U.S. counterpart. “We have finally ended the war on coal,” pretty much sums up American policy these days, as President Donald Trump declared in a recent speech. Continue reading Macron’s pledge to wipe out coal is just as meaningless as Trump’s plan to revive it
Credit card fraud is a major problem, which costs billions each year. Banks and credit card issuers have tried a number of ways to reduce the fraud. Recent examples are the rollout of cards with computer chips. Cards with chips are more secure for in-person transactions. Unfortunately, chipped cards are no more secure than older cards without a chip for remote transactions, such as paying for something over the phone or buying something on the Internet. Continue reading Is there a simple way to reduce credit card fraud?
It is almost Christmas time and the song “Santa Claus is coming to town” keeps playing over and over. For me the key lines of this ear-worm are “He knows if you’ve been bad or good so be good for goodness sake.” The song clearly states doing the right thing leads to more gifts on Christmas day.
I have been puzzling over these lyrics for years and wondered if the lines are true. Outside of Christmas does being ethical and honest lead a person to riches or poverty? While the debate has lasted a long time, only recently have actual data been gathered that can answer the question. My recently published analysis contained results that surprised me; only a few ethical and unethical acts were associated with financial changes. Continue reading Do Ethical People Finish Financially First or Last?
Thanksgiving is a great U.S. holiday during which people consume huge quantities of turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and pie. One of the stranger things about this holiday, however, is that a few days before everyone starts cooking, whole turkeys are suddenly discounted by supermarkets and grocery stores. Continue reading Why does the price of turkeys fall just before Thanksgiving?