Parallel Universe Politics

On The Frontline last night, we had the bizarre spectacle of a socialist TD organising public resistance against a property tax and a Fine Gael TD saying that public funds have to come from somewhere.

Theobald "If the men of property will not support us, they must fall" Wolfe Tone would be spinning in his intellectual grave.

It's fascinating to watch public opinion develop when policy proposals are first introduced. Opinions are much more varied when a policy is not anchored to some norm. There are crucial nuances about double-taxation with respect to stamp duty and so on, but in general property taxes are equitable (rich people pay more) and efficient (low deadweight loss). It's mad to see Marxists/the United Left Alliance argue against property taxes.

I'm looking forward to watching the public debate on taxes evolve. I am also open to taking bets on when the United Left Alliance will change their tune.

New President

Having received 200,000 more first preference votes than his nearest rival, Michael D. Higgins will surely be declared the winner of the Presidential Election later today.

Here is his last talk in the Dáil. He talks about the exercise of parliamentary democracy, the rationality of markets, individuality and inequality, and the nature of republicanism.

Congratulations to him, his family, and his party.

(No, this is not an endorsement.)

Revealed Preferences in Voting Behaviour

From RTE: Moriarty Tribunal report - The main points

Data on the Tipp North constituency from ElectionsIreland.org:

General Election 2011		Party	1st Pref Votes	Share	Quota
Michael Lowry Snr		Independent	14,104	29.22%	1.17
Noel J Coonan		Fine Gael	11,425	23.67%	0.95
Alan Kelly		Labour	9,559	19.80%	0.79
General Election 2007
Michael Lowry Snr		Independent	12,919	29.08%	1.16
Noel J Coonan		Fine Gael	7,061	15.89%	0.64
Maire Hoctor		Fianna Fail	7,374	16.60%	0.66
General Election 2002
Michael Lowry Snr		Independent	10,400	25.39%	1.02
Maire Hoctor		Fianna Fail	8,949	21.84%	0.87
Michael Smith		Fianna Fail	8,526	20.81%	0.83
General Election 1997
Michael Lowry Snr		Independent	11,638	29.13%	1.17
Michael O'Kennedy		Fianna Fail	9,895	24.77%	0.99
Michael Smith		Fianna Fail	6,999	17.52%	0.7

Education and interest in politics

It is often claimed in popular debate that education is a "public good". This is generally invoked to justify public funding for education. What "public good" means exactly is usually undefined but there seems to be a general notion that higher levels of education somehow make people better citizens. For this reason economists and political scientists have looked at whether education makes people more likely to vote: it does.
One could also ask does education make people more interested in politics? The graph uses ESS data for Ireland to show a measure of interest in politics by education level completed. There is a correlation with those who have completed tertiary education being significantly more interested. Whether this is a causal link, of course, is a harder question.

Links of Interest: 29th September

1. President Barack Obama chose Austan Goolsbee to succeed Christina Romer as the head of the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers. Here, the Wall Street Journal do a profile of Goolsbee.

2. The Guardian: a "nudge unit" set up by David Cameron in the Cabinet Office is working on how to use behavioural economics and market signals to persuade citizens to behave in a more socially integrated way.

3. The Daily Telegraph on Rory Sutherland's quiet behavioural economics revolution in the advertising industry.

4. Greatest Good: "a unique firm formed with the goal of applying rigorous, cutting-edge data analysis and economic methods to the most salient problems of business and philanthropy." Founding partners include Steven Levitt, Gary Becker, Daniel Kahneman and John List. Affiliates include David Laibson, Emily Oster, Steven Pinker and Richard Thaler.

5. The U.S. National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. They have a separate mandate to the Congressional Budget Office. "The Commission is charged with identifying policies to improve the fiscal situation in the medium term and to achieve fiscal sustainability over the long run."

6. A fascinating read for any Ph.D. student in Economics, or Ph.D. economist: 'Market Structure in the Production of Economics Ph.D.s'. Frank A. Scott, Jr. and Jeffrey D. Anstine; Southern Economic Journal Vol. 64, No. 1 (Jul., 1997), pp. 307-320.

7. The (Irish) Department of Education and Skills Inventory of Data Sources: "This document contains a matrix of educational data sources which are available from the Department of Education and Science and the agencies under its aegis."

8. University Attendance Scanners: "Northern Arizona University has installed electronic devices that record student attendance in an effort to boost freshmen grades and lift lagging graduation rates. But some students say the monitoring makes them feel less independent." (Southern California Public Radio).

9. "The Production and Deployment of an On-line Video Learning Bank in a Skills Training Environment" - Gerald Cannon, Mary Kelly, Colette Lyng, Mary McGrath; AISHE-J: The All Ireland Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, Vol 1, No 1 (2009).

10. For economics undergraduates: the Irish Taxation Institute Fantasy Budget Competition. Who needs fantasy football?