UP Links 21 August 2013

+ Brandon Fuller

California Putting Cracks in the Doctor's Cartel

"Since medical licensing is done at the state level, we have quite a bit of evidence that shows that laxer scope of practice rules make health care cheaper without hurting patient outcomes. But I also think it's important to try to drag this conversation a little bit out of the health care silo and into the larger labor-market silo. If you're anything like me, you read dozens of articles a month gesturing at ideas like the "hollowing out of the middle class" and the decline of "medium-skill" jobs, with people worrying about a future in which the American economy is composed entire of 100 hedge fund managers and their butlers."

Edmund Phelps on Global Job Satisfaction Levels

"How much people in a given country value the “interestingness of a job” is significantly related to how well the country scores in several dimensions of economic performance. So are people’s scores on acceptance of new ideas and the desire to have some initiative. On the other hand, a low willingness to take orders, which is conspicuous in some European nations, is associated with lower economic performance.

A readiness to accept change and a willingness to accept competition are also quite helpful. But a desire to achieve matters little: It is not some object people want; it is the experience -- the life."

Ryan Avent on the Economic Resilience of Cities

"In a new paper Gilles Duranton of the University of Pennsylvania and Diego Puga of the Centre for Monetary and Financial Studies in Madrid suggest that a pool of skilled workers and a diverse economy are among the best predictors of long-run success. Such characteristics offer cities the best hope of stumbling on new sources of increasing returns to scale.

Falling transport and communication costs gutted New York’s textile-manufacturing industries, for instance, by allowing lower-cost rivals to compete. But these forces also increased the return to the city’s knowledge industries, like fashion, media and finance. Technology made it easier to move money around the world but both finance firms and workers chose to stick close to hubs—to stay abreast of trade practices, to be near business-services firms, and to find the best job matches. New York, London and regional centres were the beneficiaries."

Why No Occupational Licencing for Nannies?

"...if anyone actually believed that occupational licensing ensures safety and raises quality, we would have occupational licensing rules for nannies.

Instead, we see the opposite, in every country I’m aware of. There are no occupational licensing rules for nannies as there are for, say, teachers and nurses. Instead, it’s a totally laissez faire system."

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