Becker-posner-blog - becker-posner-blog.com
General Information:
Latest News:
President Obama’s Plan for College Reform—Posner 26 Aug 2013 | 06:37 am
Several days ago the President proposed that the federal government create a rating system ("scorecards”) beginning in 2015 to rank colleges by such metrics as tuition, percentage of low-income studen...
Information About Colleges and Student Loans-Becker 26 Aug 2013 | 03:51 am
Colleges in the United States, and in most other countries as well, vary enormously in the quality of education provided, their cost, and their overall efficiency. The over 3000 American colleges comp...
Low Birth Rates: Causes, Consequences, and Remedies-Becker 19 Aug 2013 | 08:24 am
Not long ago a vocal concern was about high fertility in the world and a rapidly growing population. Remember the currently quiet zero population growth (ZPG) movement? The tide has turned since the w...
Does the World Need More People? Posner 19 Aug 2013 | 06:36 am
To answer my own question: I am dubious. It is true that a country can get into economic trouble if the number of elderly people, who invariably impose heavy costs on a country’s health care system,....
Poverty and Near-Poverty in the United States--Posner 12 Aug 2013 | 06:36 am
Two recent articles—Hope Yen, “80 Percent of U.S. Adults Face Near Poverty, Unemployment: Survey,” July 2, 2013, www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/28/poverty-unemployment-rates_n_3666594.html, and Ron Ni...
Education and the Growth of Poverty in United States-Becker 12 Aug 2013 | 05:48 am
Inequality in the US has grown substantially since 1980. As a result, “poverty”, often defined as the fraction of families with incomes less than half the average income, has increased greatly. Simila...
Technological Change and Natural Resource Prices-Becker 5 Aug 2013 | 02:51 am
Natural resource prices increased rapidly during the first decade of this century, mainly propelled by rapid increases in world GDP, especially of the US, China, Brazil, and other fast developing coun...
Commodity Price Fluctuations—Posner 4 Aug 2013 | 11:22 pm
Becker’s discussion of natural resource price fluctuations presents a compelling picture of the role of demand and technology in the price of oil and natural gas. Similar fluctuations, with varied cau...
Patent Trolls—Posner 22 Jul 2013 | 03:12 am
The term “patent trolls” is a colloquialism that denotes what the trolls themselves prefer to call “patent-assertion entities.” A patent troll buys patents (sometimes thousands) with the aim not of ma...
On Reforming the Patent System -Becker 22 Jul 2013 | 12:38 am
The patent system as practiced in the United States is too broad, too loose, and too expensive. As Posner shows, excessive trolling is an excellent illustration of some of these weaknesses. Yet most o...
