tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post6538193864564546245..comments2024-03-06T06:34:42.881-05:00Comments on EconoSpeak: The Reflexive Libertarianism of Mainstream Economists, as Applied to the Analysis of Conditional Cash TransfersUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-41511829592215689392012-06-26T22:55:55.861-04:002012-06-26T22:55:55.861-04:00I don't get it. The government pays people to ...I don't get it. The government pays people to make sure their kids attend school. And my employer pays me to make sure I show up for work. Why not just give me the money and let me decide what I want to do? Why should there be any conditionality attached to the exchange of money. I walk into a store and give the clerk some money and clerk gives me whatever he or she feels like giving me. Or nothing. Hey, this libertarian paradise is starting to sound like Forest Gump.Sandwichmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11159060882083015637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-18687220156960942162012-06-25T14:30:05.338-04:002012-06-25T14:30:05.338-04:00Jacob, let's go one level down. Suppose it...Jacob, let's go one level down. Suppose it's about the child's utility, and we have something like the "rotten parent theorem". If it's the child's current period utility, we can just ask him/her. (That's what the so-called child labor protagonist school wants to do.) But we don't. So it must be about future utility, which the child is not yet in a position to judge. But if this is the case, who judges? How do you know the parents are wrong if they think the child will be better off not going to school? Well, you could do a study of course. <i>But no one has ever -- ever -- done a study to determine whether or under what circumstances specific levels of education are utility-improving over an appropriate time horizon.</i> So you are overriding the parental judgment of child utility with....what?<br /><br />Or maybe it's not about utility at all.Peter Dormanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00093399591393648071noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-37988696119117235882012-06-25T13:07:30.324-04:002012-06-25T13:07:30.324-04:00It seems to me that the rationale behind these sor...It seems to me that the rationale behind these sorts of programs is very simple to explain even from the standpoint of neoclassical microeconomics. When we give cash to the parents of small children, we want them to spend it in such a way that it maximizes the utility of their children. However, since we are giving it to <i> them </i> and not to their children, we should expect that they will spend it to maximize their own utility. The imposition of conditionality is logical if society perceives that the parents' utility functions are sufficiently different from their children's that the cash will not be spent "properly." There's absolutely no need to resort to social norms in order to explain the logic behind this sort of policy. It is perfectly sound economics as well.jacobadenbaumhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06288205661640112091noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-59431719796743976232012-06-25T10:26:05.337-04:002012-06-25T10:26:05.337-04:00Re: "These things are much, much easier to u...Re: "These things are much, much easier to understand if you don’t “think like an economist”."<br /><br />Ah, but "... most behavior is normative: people follow their crowd and largely do what the others do. "<br /><br />Economists do what other economists do.Myrtle Blackwoodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07427043367624101075noreply@blogger.com