Easy Money, Probabilistically Speaking

Here is an essay contest for economics students. Based on my experience as a judge in similar contests, Bryan Caplan is right that "the number of submissions is usually absurdly low considering the size of the prizes and the opportunity cost of students' time."

Landsburg's Latest

Economist Steven Landsburg writes in Slate about rape and violence.

By the way, I recently had the opportunity to read a prepublication copy Steve's new book, More Sex Is Safer Sex: The Unconventional Wisdom of Economics, which is largely a compilation and expansion of his Slate pieces. As is expected from Steve, it is provocative and fun.

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I will be giving a public lecture tomorrow at Vanderbilt University.

PARIS - on the street, les halles and le marais, 11/1/06

Not the PEE-goo Club

A blog reader asks a question about the Pigou Club's namesake:

I have a question that I've frankly been too embarrassed to ask about in your comments: exactly how does one pronounce, 'Pigou'? One of the possible pronunciations (PEE-goo, with a hard 'G') means something in Chinese that I'd be equally embarrassed to bring up publicly. I really hope that's not the correct one.

As I pronounce it, the g is hard, but the i has a short i sound rather than a long e, and the accent is on the second syllable. Take the word "pig" and add an "oo" at the end.

Don't you hate it when economists have weird, hard-to-pronounce last names?

Yes, the trade deficit is really big

From David Leonhardt's column in today's NY Times. In Ec 10, we will be discussing the economics of trade deficits in the spring.

Another reason to study economics

An ec 10 student explains how economics enhances your appreciation of television:

I just was watching some West Wing in my room and they were talking about protecting pharmaceutical patents. The one guy says "Those pills cost them four cents a unit to make..." and the other guy says "You know that's not true! The second pill costs them four cents, the first pill costs them four hundred million dollars!" Just thought it was cool that I understood why this was and I wouldn't have a few weeks ago.