tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post4375003928921842529..comments2024-03-28T03:16:14.104-04:00Comments on Noahpinion: This blog post cost $0Noah Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09093917601641588575noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-65180847993755685622013-09-27T04:39:02.204-04:002013-09-27T04:39:02.204-04:000.00.0Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14930389806411920991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-70149885798239662732013-09-26T17:12:40.380-04:002013-09-26T17:12:40.380-04:00I think that you, more than anybody else who has r...I think that you, more than anybody else who has replied, would appreciate this recent blog entry of mine...<a href="http://pragmatarianism.blogspot.com/2013/09/market-success-versus-government-success.html" rel="nofollow">Market Success vs Government Success</a>. Xerographicahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14978832439622230018noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-59184646378954383822013-09-26T17:03:17.268-04:002013-09-26T17:03:17.268-04:00I still think this is a reasonable, ballpark calcu...I still think this is a reasonable, ballpark calculation, within a factor of +/- 10-fold, and that this is helpful for thinking of a very real problem: deadweight loss due to waiting!<br /><br />Supermarket lines, coffee lines, congested traffic, slow computers, delayed buses, time spent on hold, all these things cause huge deadweight losses. Even if you only ballpark them to within some order of magnitude, you have to admit that something inefficient is going on and that there's scope for improvement.<br /><br />Time is people's lives.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-11045583528154124522013-09-25T10:46:55.621-04:002013-09-25T10:46:55.621-04:00I think it’s to relevant to keep in mind that we a...I think it’s to relevant to keep in mind that we are discussing a marginal opportunity cost. Your long run benefit from working one extra hour on any given day is quite low. If you waited on line for an extra hour for $10 every time you had the opportunity to do so, those hours would certainly add up over time and decrease your long run performance.<br /><br />Similarly, you don’t want to get up at 5am every morning to wait for cronuts, but doing it once probably won’t hurt.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-17079835232100569732013-09-25T01:18:13.899-04:002013-09-25T01:18:13.899-04:00I've thought of this kind of thing before.
Th...I've thought of this kind of thing before.<br /><br />The key thing, I think, is to be sure to not ignore some of the benefits and costs, and to keep in mind declining marginal utility.<br /><br />Suppose I wait in line for 1 hour to get a sale price $10 lower. An analysis that doesn't take into account the above would say this is inefficient. I could work for that hour and make a lot more than $10 after-tax (even salaried people can work more and improve long run performance, increasing the odds of promotion, decreasing the odds of layoff, etc.).<br /><br />But while working an extra hour might make me $40/hour versus $10/hour waiting in line, I enjoy waiting in line more than working yet another hour after I've already worked 60 of them and I'm getting really tired and stressed of it. The $10/hour is a lower wage, but it's more enjoyable to de-stress, play with my phone, read a book, chat, contemplate, etc. So, it's the higher total net marginal utility deal when you take all of that into account.<br /><br />The same thing goes for things like mowing your own lawn, doing cooking and housework, or working on your car. Richard H. Serlinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09824966626830758801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-86755254572188654622013-09-24T22:00:46.092-04:002013-09-24T22:00:46.092-04:00Wouldn't it be better to calculate the amount ...Wouldn't it be better to calculate the amount that could be earned panhandling the line instead of standing in it?Rothosennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-44348146316331038612013-09-24T20:11:31.467-04:002013-09-24T20:11:31.467-04:00CPS doesn’t survey everyone, so I really do only h...CPS doesn’t survey everyone, so I really do only have 1,642 people in my dataset. I included the number because once you start asking very narrow questions with CPS, you get quite small sample sizes.<br /><br />I also forgot to say that I restricted to workers aged 18 and above.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-22954969149695057682013-09-24T19:54:13.327-04:002013-09-24T19:54:13.327-04:00Of course the opportunity cost of the cronut line ...<i>Of course the opportunity cost of the cronut line may not be zero, but I think most of the cost is non-economic.</i><br /><br />An entire entry on the opportunity cost concept? On Noah's blog? Yup, only possible because somebody else wrote it. <br /><br />What's the point of the opportunity cost concept? Sure, you can't have your cake and eat it too...therefore...? Therefore what? Xerographicahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14978832439622230018noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-38724737438766344942013-09-24T18:27:46.261-04:002013-09-24T18:27:46.261-04:00"There are 1,642 employed people (unweighted)..."There are 1,642 employed people (unweighted) in the sample for the New York–Northern New Jersey–Long Island metropolitan area"<br /><br />Think you may have left a multiplier on the floor somewhere....Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-58013325872454977422013-09-24T17:21:07.847-04:002013-09-24T17:21:07.847-04:00Joan Robinson noted this:
"There is the prob...Joan Robinson noted this:<br /><br />"There is the problem of the relative levels of different types of earned income. Here we have the famous marginal productivity theory... The real wage of each type of labour is supposed to measure its marginal product to society. The salary of a professor of economics measures his contribution to society and the wage of a garbage collector measures his contribution. Of course this is a very comforting doctrine for professors of economics but I fear that once more the argument is circular. There is not any measure of marginal products except the wages themselves. In short, we have not got a theory of distribution. We have nothing to say on the subject which above all others occupies the minds of the people whom economics is supposed to enlighten."<br /><br />http://www.economics-antitextbook.com/2011/11/joan-robinson-on-marginal-productivity.htmlRamananhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11123448543333785121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17232051.post-52649877770856431822013-09-24T16:43:03.084-04:002013-09-24T16:43:03.084-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.Ramananhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11123448543333785121noreply@blogger.com