Jake Vigdor

@Noahpinion “No child allowed ahead” I call it

The push for crappy K-12 education and lax college admissions standards is a kind of "predistribution" -- trying to equalize status and income in American society by preventing talented people from being able to realize their potential. noahpinion.blog/p/bad-educatio…

@haugejostein @sandraguilarg The key difference between Econ and chemistry/physics/medicine: in the hard sciences faculty pay most of their own salaries from grants. Thus most any institution can afford to hire a superstar. There is much less funding in econ, thus only wealthy institutions are in the game.

Economics has an elitism problem. It is the *only* discipline that exhibits a high and growing institutional concentration among its Nobel laureates. It's basically a rite of passage to have been at one of only eight elite US universities to win the prize.

A century ago the nation's first minimum wage laws were weekly, not hourly. Is it time to go back? open.substack.com/pub/jacobvigdo…

@FabioGhironi Most likely a Cooper’s hawk!

This bird was perched in one of our trees yesterday. Some kind of hawk, I think. More or less the same size as a crow. Does anyone recognize it? Sorry I do not have a better picture.

Washington state's revenue collections simply aren't adequate to fund public services at levels other states take for granted. A recent Fed Reserve Bank of Minneapolis study ranks us 48th in terms of state/local tax rate. We, higher income people especially, can afford more.

Read all about it! open.substack.com/pub/jacobvigdo…

Unlike other states with strong tech sectors, Washington's is based overwhelmingly on imported entrepreneurship & talent. And its tax revenue model has become dependent on population growth. Without a stronger education infrastructure, this isn't going to end well (1/2)

Tariffs of a Century Ago Were So Unpopular They Drove 42 States to Approve... The Income Tax open.substack.com/pub/jacobvigdo…

Washington started a cap-and-trade carbon permit system in 2023. A proposal to repeal it is now on the ballot. The evidence suggests it's raised gas prices by more than "pennies," but that may be a good thing...open.substack.com/pub/jacobvigdo…

Is Seattle Regulating the Rental Market to Death? open.substack.com/pub/jacobvigdo…

The last time Washington's population growth looked this feeble was the Boeing bust of the early 1970s. Here's why that threatens to cause belt tightening in state and local government. open.substack.com/pub/jacobvigdo…

The economy seems fine, so why is Washington's state budget outlook so gloomy? It's because the state has become dependent on population growth to fund government, and population growth has hit lows not seen in a half-century or more. open.substack.com/pub/jacobvigdo…

If given the option, expect younger and higher-income workers to opt out of the WA CARES long-term care insurance plan, almost certainly dooming it to insolvency. open.substack.com/pub/jacobvigdo…

We've got some initiatives on the ballot in Washington this year... first in a series of reflections on the economics behind them! open.substack.com/pub/jacobvigdo…

@UW If we break manufacturing down into 21 segments, transportation equipment (@Boeing etc) accounts for half the losses. But 13 of 21 segments show losses, with the largest percentage loss in the state's (relatively small) apparel manufacturing industry, down more than 25% (2/2).

This chart caught my eye this morning... I know @UW joined the Big 10 but apparently Washington state has also joined the Rust Belt? Most manufacturing job losses of any state 2019-2023. What's going on? Lets drill down just a bit (1/2)

Recently published short paper in the @JPubEcon : "Local Minimum Wage Laws, Boundary Discontinuity Methods, and Policy Spillovers" Vol 234 (June 2024) by @ekaterinajardim, @mlmarklong, Bob Plotnick, @JakeVigdor, @emmabwiles sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

@CityofSeattle @DoorDash Bottom line, there's no regulation that makes the risk of slow business/unexpected delivery delays go away. Regulations can determine who bears it. And it's easy to argue that drivers, financially, are less well-positioned to bear risk than either platforms or customers. /end.

@CityofSeattle @DoorDash Mind you, there’s a 3rd party to these transactions who could also be asked to bear some risk: the customer. Rather than charge a $4.99 fee, @DoorDash could have implemented a practice of quoting a range of fees and charging more only when drivers are entitled to more pay.

Back in January the @CityofSeattle implemented minimum pay standards for app-based delivery drivers. Apps like @Doordash responded by imposing new delivery fees. Now the City might repeal the law. What gives? A thread, with some economics and a $32 burrito.