Mark Stehr

Seat Belts

Possible Class Discussion Topics

1: Mark Stehr, a professor of economics at LeBow, seems to LOVE measuring compliance with incentives under different regulatory regimes. He has papers on the effects of cigarette taxes, seatbelt laws, sunday alcohol sales, bicycle helmet mandates and condom usage. His paper on seat-belts is provided in the post above. Maybe we should read this or another of his articles for an upcoming class and I'll contact him to gauge his interest in coming in for a conversation. Your thoughts?
2: Martha Nussbaum's book, Animal Rights, contains a debate between Judge Posner and Peter Singer, regarding the boundaries of moral existence. Posner argues for a human-centric view of morality, while Singer espouses a utilitarian perspective based upon the ability of creatures to feel pain. Is this something we want to discuss, or is it too far afield? My initial thought is that it may fall way outside the range of our discussion, but I wonder, based on our recent conversations, whether insights gleaned from this sort of argument might affect our consideration of incentives and the reactions groups and individual actors have to them. Again, thoughts?

My Myth: Presidents create jobs.

This is not about regulation, but it is about economics. Very cool.

Karl Okamoto, “After the Bailout: Regulating Systemic Moral Hazard"

SSRN-id1292476

A student (unnamed) just supplied this:

Good Housekeeping Funding Model

It's free to submit a product for review, but if approved you pay to use the logo and advertise your status.

Their Website takes third party ads (through google) and they have a print magazine which, presumably, takes advertising as well.

http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/product-testing/history/good-housekeeping-seal-faqs

Good Housekeeping

http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/product-testing/history/about-good-housekeeping-seal

Rabbits.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-01-31/spousonomics-how-economics-can-help-figure-out-marriage-by-paula-szuchman/

Costs of Bargaining

Breyer refers to the "costs of bargaining," but what ARE they?

I'm struggling to sort out how our very expensive but very much middling heath care system fit into this framework.

Maybe there are some things that markets can't capture...

In the healthcare system, the intersection of private and government action create a flawed system.

What we want from a healthcare system is "health and wellness", i.e., lack of disease, long life, healthy kids. Our health insurance system provides short-term access to health care services.

Healthcare services are a component of health and wellbeing, but the market seems unable to provide health and wellness to the population as a whole. (We're around number 50 in the world in terms of life expectancy, on a par with Cuba and Bosnia).

An example: I currently smoke from time to time. I'm currently an Aetna customer. If I keep smoking, it could cost hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars in health care costs when I get older. It's a pretty safe bet that Aetna won't be paying for my care. So what does Aetna care if I quit? Are they going to be agressive in spending money to help me quit? No.

Likewise, are they going to pay for my gym membership? Or create powerful incentives for me to workout? ( They might offer some discount on gym membership...) If they had to pay for me as a wheezing fat old man I'd think they might look at me differently.

Watch This!

Via John Stead

Misshapen Fruit Only Recently Salable in Europe

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106114358
Btw, this has an audio component!

My last for a little while, but this is great:

http://www.news9.com/global/story.asp?s=12899662

Any thoughts?

Here's the letter the Senators sent to the EPA:
http://ftpcontent.worldnow.com/griffin/NEWS9/PDF/1007/EPALetter.PDF

Cooler Blog - Cure Worse than Disease?

http://volokh.com/2011/01/29/credit-card-rates-at-record-high/

Cool Blog - Regulatory Failure?

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Report

In the Crystal Ball: More Regulation for Psychics

In the Crystal Ball: More Regulation for Psychics

The FTC and the Internet - Event Audio/Video » Publications » The Federalist Society

The FTC and the Internet - Event Audio/Video » Publications » The Federalist Society

Not sure if anyone is interested, but this is the new opinion ruling ObamaCare unconstitutional.

Vinson opinion