Tim Sepp teaches economics at the University of Leipzig.

Central Banks May Be Driving Us Toward More Waste, More Carbon Emissions

Christine Lagarde, the new president of the European Central Bank (ECB), has added a new green dimension to monetary policymaking. The charming Frenchwoman signaled that the ECB could buy green bonds, possibly as part of the reanimated bond purchase program (a form of QE). This could reduce the financing costs of green investment projects. If interest rates were negative, the green bond purchases would even amount to a subsidy for climate-friendly investment. This could strengthen environmental protection in times of tight expenditure constraints for overindebted governments.

Capital Accumulation, Not Government, Is the Key To Technological Innovation

According to Mariana Mazzucato, the RM Phillips Professor in the Economics of Innovation at the University of Sussex, government is an important factor in the promotion of innovation and thus economic growth. In particular, she challenges the popular view that innovation happens in the private sector, with governments playing a limited role. Many commentators regard her as a revolutionary thinker that challenges the accepted dogma regarding the role of government in promoting innovations and economic growth.

Maternal Care Scandal in Britain’s NHS Reveals Human Costs of Socialised Medicine

If the current Democratic primary has illustrated one thing, it is that the fascination with socialised medicine in the American political conversation continues to double and redouble with each passing year. However, given the often-repeated slogan that the US is supposedly the only rich country without universal healthcare, conspicuously little attention has been paid to the actual experiences of those other countries, and whether or not adopting socialised medicine turned out to be as benevolent as US politicians are taking for granted.

The Nobel Laureates Are Wrong: Of Course Financial Incentives Matter

A recent NYT article from this year’s economics Nobel Prize winners, Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee, argues that “economists have somehow managed to hide in plain sight an enormously consequential finding from their research: Financial incentives are nowhere near as powerful as they are usually assumed to be.” Yet as we’ll see, Duflo and Banerjee cherry-pick studies that support their conclusion, while ignoring the body of literature that opposes it.