Author Archives: Susann Lees

The National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders was appointed by President Lyndon Johnson in the summer of 1967 and issued its report in February 1968. US cities had been experiencing sporadic but severe riots for three years. The report became known as the Kerner Commission after its chair, Governor Otto Kerner, Jr. of Illinois. I’mContinue reading “Black/White Disparities: 50 Years After the Kerner Commission”

Analysis in economics and other social sciences often uses a combination of words and mathematics. There is an ongoing critique by those who argue that while the math may sometimes be useful, it is too often deployed with insufficient regard for whether it captures the underlying economic reality. In such cases, the argument goes, mathContinue reading “Some Thoughts About Economic Exposition in Math and Words”

The Council of Economic Advisers was established by the Employment Act of 1946 as a separate office in the White House. Along with an ongoing stream of stream of reports and advice, the CEA also produces an annual report, and the 2018 Economic Report of the President  is now available. The CEA is headed byContinue reading “A Grasshopper View: The 2018 Economic Report of the President”

There are legitimate concerns about how the poverty line is set. It was set back in the early 1960s and adjusted for inflation since then, but without regard for other changes in the economy. It doestn’t vary according to regional differences in the cost of living and it doesn’t include in-kind benefits like Medicaid andContinue reading “Brainstorming Anti-Poverty Programs”

Most countries of the world tax oil products, especially the gasoline used in the road sector, but impose only very low taxes on other fossil fuels.  The OECD compiles a Taxing Energy Use Database that includes energy use and energy taxes for 42 countries that make up 80% of global energy use, and not coincidentally,Continue reading “Pollutant Taxes on Energy: Why So Focused on Roads?”

A couple of decades back, it was  hard to find systematic and reliable information on the economic and family characteristics of same-sex couples. However, the US Census has been collecting baseline data for some years now, and just released an annual report, Characteristics of Same-Sex Couple Households: 2005 to Present. The report is just a fewContinue reading “Some Patterns for Same-Sex Households”

Why is it that the United States (or democracies in general) can in many cases pass foolish bad laws or make a  misguided selection of leaders–but nonetheless continue over time to flourish over a sustained time? Alexis de Tocqueville tackles that question in this passage from his 1840 work Democracy in America (Chapter XIV: AdvantagesContinue reading “"The Great Advantage of the Americans Consists in Their Being Able to Commit Faults Which They may Afterward Repair"”

Cotton pickers. Shelf-scanners at Walmart. Quality control at building sites. Radiologists. These are just four examples of jobs that are being transformed and even sometime eliminated by the newest wave of automated and programmable machinery. Here are four short stories from various sources, which of course represent a much broader transformation happening across the globalContinue reading “Four Examples from the Automation Frontier”

Before settling into my sofa for a couple of weeks of watching the athletes slip and slide through Winter Olympics from PyeongChang, I need to confess that the Games are a highly questionable economic proposition. One vivid illustration is that the $100 million new stadium in which the opening ceremonies will be held is goingContinue reading “Olympic Economics”

If you’re interested in how K-12 schools might improve their performance, charter schools can be viewed as a laboratory experiment. Sarah Cohodes discusses the lessons they have to teach in “Charter Schools and the Achievement Gap,” written as a Policy Issue paper for Future of Children (Winter 2018). From a social science view, charter schoolsContinue reading “What Charter Schools Can Teach the Rest of K-12 Education”