Lars P. Syll

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I’ve subsequently stayed away from the minimum wage literature for a number of reasons. First, it cost me a lot of friends. People that I had known for many years, for instance, some of the ones I met at my first job at the University of Chicago, became very angry or disappointed. They thought that in publishing our work we were being traitors to the cause of economics as a whole. David Card Back in 1992, New Jersey raised the minimum wage by 18 per cent while its neighbour...

Tunström’s epic masterpiece (personal) The Christmas Oratory — based on Göran Tunström’s s epic masterpiece — is a stunningly beautiful and totally heartbreaking movie. Stefan Nilsson wrote the God-given music. [embedded content]

Skolans kris är politikernas fel Trots alla de väldokumenterade och uppenbara avigsidor som följer på marknadsstyrningen av skolan verkar inget av riksdagspartiernas politiker (med undantag för vänstern) vara beredda på att diskutera alternativ styrning av skolsystemet … Centerledaren har med rak arm förbjudit någon som helst diskussion om vinster i skola och välfärd, istället ska vi prata om kvalitetskrav och stänga skolverksamheter oftare, som om mer...

The radical façade of randomistas do not help us fight poverty Perhaps the most concerning aspect of the randomista enterprise is their claim to neutrality and objectivity. While knowledge generated by RCTs may be able to generate useful insights in some instances, evidence always requires interpretation … The findings of the randomistas do not speak for themselves; they require interpretation. The randomistas’ interpretation of these results through a...

The typical economics course starts with the study of how rational agents interact in frictionless markets, producing an outcome that is best for everyone. Only later does it cover those wrinkles and perversities that characterise real economic behaviour, such as anti-competitive practices or unstable financial markets. As students advance, there is a growing bias towards mathematical elegance. When the uglier real world intrudes, it only prompts the question: this is all very...

[embedded content] Tillägnad alla gamla radikala vänner och kollegor som numera glatt traskar patrull och omfamnar allt de en gång i tiden hade modet att våga kritisera och ifrågasätta …

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One of yours truly’s Sunday morning rituals is reading the obituary column of The Telegraph. This obit is rather typical: Peter Scott, who has died aged 82, was a highly accomplished cat burglar, and as Britain’s most prolific plunderer of the great and good took particular pains to select his victims from the ranks of aristocrats, film stars and even royalty. According to a list of 100 names he supplied to The Daily Telegraph, he targeted figures such as Soraya Khashoggi,...

Animal rights — a question of human dignity Throughout European history the idea of the human being has been expressed in contradistinction to the animal. The latter’s lack of reason is the proof of human dignity. So insistently and unanimously has this antithesis been recited … that few other ideas are so fundamental to Western anthropology. The antithesis is acknowledged even today. The behaviorists only appear to have forgotten it. That they apply to...