Would you like a box with that?

A noticeable feature of dining in American restaurants (well maybe not the posh places that I can’t afford) is that they offer you a box to take your left-overs away in. You can often get a second meal out of this (tonight for example) unless, of course, you forget to retrieve it and your car smells of curry for a month. No chance of that happening in Ireland or the UK. I think I saw some unfortunate American ask once in Dublin only to be sniffily refused.
So is it a “good thing”? Well the option of a box means that you get what you pay for or at least the gap between the value of what you pay and the value of what you consume is smaller. The cost of the box is probably small so an efficiency gain, for sure.
Or is it? I have this niggling feeling that there may be a downside. Without the box, you have an incentive not to over-order. If we assumed that people don’t know how much they want to eat or how much is good for them (otherwise why is there an obesity epidemic) then its less clear to me that having this option is welfare improving.

Would you like a box with that?

A noticeable feature of dining in American restaurants (well maybe not the posh places that I can’t afford) is that they offer you a box to take your left-overs away in. You can often get a second meal out of this (tonight for example) unless, of course, you forget to retrieve it and your car smells of curry for a month. No chance of that happening in Ireland or the UK. I think I saw some unfortunate American ask once in Dublin only to be sniffily refused.
So is it a “good thing”? Well the option of a box means that you get what you pay for or at least the gap between the value of what you pay and the value of what you consume is smaller. The cost of the box is probably small so an efficiency gain, for sure.
Or is it? I have this niggling feeling that there may be a downside. Without the box, you have an incentive not to over-order. If we assumed that people don’t know how much they want to eat or how much is good for them (otherwise why is there an obesity epidemic) then its less clear to me that having this option is welfare improving.

The High Cost of Low Educational Performance

A new OECD report examines the relationship between education and economic growth.

While governments frequently commit to improving the quality of education, it often slips down the policy agenda. Because investing in education only pays off in the future, it is possible to underestimate the value and the importance of improvements.

This report uses recent economic modelling to relate cognitive skills – as measured by PISA and other international instruments – to economic growth, demonstrating that relatively small improvements to labour force skills can largely impact the future well-being of a nation.

The report also shows that it is the quality of learning outcomes, not the length of schooling, which makes the difference. A modest goal of all OECD countries boosting their average PISA scores by 25 points over the next 20 years would increase OECD gross domestic product by USD 115 trillion over the lifetime of the generation born in 2010. More aggressive goals could result in gains in the order of USD 260 trillion.

The High Cost of Low Educational Performance

A new OECD report examines the relationship between education and economic growth.

While governments frequently commit to improving the quality of education, it often slips down the policy agenda. Because investing in education only pays off in the future, it is possible to underestimate the value and the importance of improvements.

This report uses recent economic modelling to relate cognitive skills – as measured by PISA and other international instruments – to economic growth, demonstrating that relatively small improvements to labour force skills can largely impact the future well-being of a nation.

The report also shows that it is the quality of learning outcomes, not the length of schooling, which makes the difference. A modest goal of all OECD countries boosting their average PISA scores by 25 points over the next 20 years would increase OECD gross domestic product by USD 115 trillion over the lifetime of the generation born in 2010. More aggressive goals could result in gains in the order of USD 260 trillion.

HEA Competition for Research Students

The Higher Education Authority and the Irish Independent are inviting research students in any discipline to make a short submission on the difference that their research work will make to ‘a particular aspect of Irish life, to the country as a whole or indeed, internationally.’

The six researchers with the most innovative or challenging ideas will be invited to present how their research is making an impact at a public event at The Helix at Dublin City University on Monday 26th April.

The closing date is Thursday 4th March and more details are available on the HEA website.

UCC Lecture on Risk Intelligence

The lecture is titled: "Risk Intelligence" – How expert gamblers can teach us all to make better decisions" — and will be delivered by Dr. Dylan Evans on Wednesday, February 10th at 8pm in Boole IV Lecture Theatre, University College Cork.

Dr Evans is Lecturer in Behavioural Science in the School of Medicine at UCC. He is the author of several popular science books, including Emotion: The Science of Sentiment (Oxford University Press, 2001) and Placebo: The Belief Effect (Harper Collins, 2003).

Link to Projection Point: a project to gather information about risk intelligence. HT: mulley.net

Markets Beware Greeks Bearing Gilts

As Greece stumbles its way towards the humiliation of an IMF loan it is the way this latest economic tragedy is being reported that causes most concern. The hegemony of market domination is complete as journalists report on the need for the country to rapidly cut public spending with no voice given to those in the country who need public spending to continue.

The flight from Greek national debt is a demonstration of the growing power of the market makers, as they attempt to sideline and denigrate the more vulnerable of the European economies. Far from reducing their power, the financial crisis has emboldened the finance traders, since it proved that no government had the courage to make politics and public interest count for more than market profit. With a few exceptions, commentators who might defend the interests of the citizen against those of the speculators are excluded from the media so that the public debate is framed entirely in terms of what Greek politicians must do to please the markets. There is no sense of irony that, even in the home of democracy, the wishes of the people have become an irrelevance.

The speculative attacks on Greece and the lining up of the countries that are to follow – Portugal and Spain are in the firing line first, since Ireland kowtowed and put its credit-rating before the needs of its people – is reminiscent of the 1997 Asian financial crisis. The movements in value of national economies and their debt enables the gaining of arbitrage profit for the speculators, whose room for manoeuvre always expands during a crisis. Hence the credit-rating agencies and the media are working together to create opportunities for profit.

The case for a new international financial system, negotiated on a democratic basis, grows ever stronger. The original role of the IMF was to intervene in just this sort of situation, and in its early days its facilities were used mostly by the European economies who were taking the rocky road to reconstruction following the Second World War. The Greek crisis is a clear demonstration of the need for a democratic and accountable lender of last resort for the world economy to replace the disaster of a financial system dominated by private speculative interests.