The latest Per Capita paper summarises the research on various cognitive biases ( loss aversion , endowment effect , etc) and makes suggestions for policymakers about ‘choice architecture’ that helps people make better, less irrational, decisions. For example, default options of sensible choices where people have to opt out to avoid them preserves freedom to choose while encouraging decisions that will benefit most people. It’s the kind of argument Cass Sustein has been making for years, and on which he co-wrote with Richard Thaler a widely-cited 2008 book called Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness (which is strangely not cited in the Per Capita paper; if Sunstein did not coin ‘choice architecture’ he’s certainly its main populariser)
|
||||||
|
So far, we’re beating the odds Battersby Colebatch Gittins Martin Australia is on track to defy the world and avoid a recession in 2009, beginning a recovery early next year in the assessment of more than 20 leading economists. The Age’s half-yearly economic survey predicts an economic contraction of as mere 0.1 per cent this year followed by a rebound of 0.6 per cent in the year to June 2010. For weeks NSW politics has been awash with rumours that Frank Sartor was going to challenge NSW Premier Nathan Rees for the Labor Leadership. …and keep reaching for the stars.” We will Casey . At 77, Casey Kasem has actually hung up his microphone To all aspiring Liberal candidates for the 2011 NSW election: I write this as a warning to you all. Please do not interpret this as an attack on the Liberal Party, a body that, for all it’s faults, I deeply do love – since handing out my first ‘how to vote’ in 1995 at the age of only 12, I have dedicated my life to serving the party for many, many years, and I have no plans for change. I write this purely to serve as a word of warning, and to let you know of a growing issue that worries me greatly. Mmmm Someone is very sure about the outcome of tomorrow’s Reserve Bank board meeting. Late on Thursday, the day that briefing papers went out to the members of the Reserve Bank board, Centrebet received an inquiry about accepting an enormous wager Following a barrage of criticism from within the Liberal Party on their stance to abandon fundamental Liberal principles of freedom of speech, freedom of choice, competition, by voting to support the censorship of media outlets who wish to publish ’school league tables’, the NSW Coalition has responded to its critics. The allegedly conservative NSW Leader of the Opposition Mr The outlook for actual jobs is about to get bleak: Graph: UBS Details below: Anz Job Ads June Peter Martin is the economics correspondent for Australia’s two leading newspapers, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age . He blogs at peter martin’s blog , peter’s picks and twitter . Joshua Gans in today’s Age : “I would be happy if beside every representation of (government) information, there was a ‘click here to download a spreadsheet ’ button. Executive power: unicameral parliaments cannot rely on watchdogs alone to guard against corruption. |
||||||
|
|
||||||