Hyphens as a signalling mechanism

The economist in me could not stop thinking about inefficiency and wasted effort today as a team of us sat tediously pouring over a grant proposal and checking it for minor formatting issues or inconsistencies.  Four highly trained individuals (whose time is presumably valuable) spent about 2 hours today (after spending countless hours all summer) essentially debating, among other things, when it was appropriate to shorten "first-generation" to "FG" and when it should be "first-generation" with a hyphen vs. "first generation" without a hyphen.  This was all in order to appease future readers of our grant who, I'm 99.999999% sure couldn't care less.  None-the-less, this is the way the game is played, and everyone has to do it lest their grant ends up in the trash can for appearing unprofessional.

Copyrights and economic efficiency

As anyone who had me for a class last semester knows, I've recently developed a renewed interest in questions of intellectual property, patents, and copyrights.  This topic is at the forefront of the news in the tech world this week as the fallout from the Apple vs. Samsung case is beginning to sort itself out and Google is preparing for their inevitable court case. 

There are some really strong economic arguments both in favor and against strong intellectual property protection. The basic case is as follows: 

Ecosystem Services and Civil Society- The Solution?

I watched an interesting TED talk earlier today about an NGO out in Portland, Oregon called The Freshwater Trust.  The Freshwater Trust figures out ways in which ecosystem services and technology can couple to address the speed and scale of water degradation.

I am wondering a few things right now:

What does (should) "civil society" do?

This is a theme I would like to come back to often and have others take up.  I am not entirely sure we have a good grasp on it, either as academics or as regular laypeople.  

Can I start with this as universally agreeable outcomes (or, in social science speak, dependent variables)?  We want social order (e.g. coordination and cooperation; safety and security) that offers real opportunities for high standards of living (e.g. health, happiness).  

How do we get there?

Your money or your life?

I spent a good chunk of last week visiting with one of my old college friends who is someone who has strong opinions on a lot of subjects.  One of his targets last weekend was insurance markets which he thinks should be regulated like utilities (another of our friends is an actuary, so insurance tends to come up as a topic - we have more fun than it sounds like though, don't worry).  Another target was the market for a number of financial derivatives which he feels are immoral in that many of them are betting on failure and disasters.

These are things most of us outside Wall St. don't think about everyday, and he made some good arguments, but I generally played the devil's advocate and the "good free-market-economist" to most of his points, pointing out the value of insurance and in managing risk, etc.  This morning though,  I think I found a story that really puts the debate about insurance and derivative regulations in stark perspective:

Congrats to Xanthi

Our congratulations to one of our outstanding APSS majors, Xanthi Gerasimo, on being named to the USA Rugby Academic All-American Team!  Also, be on the lookout for the seminal interdisciplinary research paper on the growth of Rugby in the upper midwest, coming soon to a conference near you ...

Shark Week externalities

Here's a negative externality example in honor of shark week.  Apparently scientists have found that the ocean is now caffeinated off the coast of Oregon from Portland hipster coffee run-off.  Sharks in the pacific northwest will now have a caffeine buzz ... What's next, frickin' laser beams?

That Starbucks mermaid better watch out!

Cap & Trade slippery slope

In my econ classes, we spend a lot of time talking about Cap & Trade and other market-based solutions to economic problems such as pollution.  This recent article in Slate follows the concept of efficient markets to a potentially uncomfortable extreme. 

In China (and likely elsewhere), it has not been unheard of over the years for the wealthy to hire body double stand-ins to serve their prison sentences.  Some have justified this practice and its effectiveness. After all, the real criminal was punished by paying out the "market value of his crime", while the stand-in’s punishment intimidated other criminals, keeping the overall crime rate low. In other words, a “cap-and-trade” policy for crime.