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Claudia Goldin

An interview with my Harvard colleague.

The EITC is better than the minimum wage

Warren Buffett has a great article in the Wall Street Journal.

Alternatives to the Price System

This article makes the case for social, rather than financial, incentives. I am not convinced, but it should generate an interesting class discussion.

Bill Clinton in Haiti

A few years ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Patrick Moynihan, a Catholic deacon who is the president of The Haitian Project and head of its Louverture Cleary School, in Haiti, for gifted but poor children. Our paths crossed because Patrick was helping to launch a course in introductory economics at the school, and my publisher generously donated copies of my favorite textbook.

Patrick recently sent me a link to his article about the role Bill Clinton has played in Haiti. It is not a pretty picture.

From Richard Thaler

A great article in today's NY Times.

Why I invest in index funds

The NY Times reports:

For investors in hedge funds, like big pension funds, 2014 was not a lucrative year. But for those who managed their money, the pay was spectacular. 

The top 25 hedge fund managers reaped $11.62 billion in compensation in 2014, according to an annual ranking published on Tuesday by Institutional Investor’s Alpha magazine. 

That collective payday came even as hedge funds, once high-octane money makers, returned on average low-single digits. In comparison, the benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index posted a gain of 13.68 percent last year when reinvested dividends were included.... 

For investors, 2014 was the sixth consecutive year that hedge funds have fallen short of stock market performance, returning only 3 percent on average.

Where I will be on Monday

Here: 40 years later- The relevance of Okun’s "Equality and Efficiency: The Big Tradeoff"