Friday 28th May -- "He came from the wrong side of the tracks"

This Friday, Jason will introduce a discussion on the effects of local environment on socioeconomic outcomes, and associated public policy. We often think about the influence of personal characteristics such as race, gender and family income on individuals' socioeconomic outcomes -- just how important is location among these? For instance, if someone from a 'bad neighbourhood' was moved with their family at birth to a nearby 'good neighbourhood', but kept the same income status, same parents, same race and same gender, how much difference would this make to their life outcomes?

• The mean streets of Philadelphia -- disadvantages of race or place?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYLepQQNQCU
• Meng mu san qian?http://www.cctv.com/program/cultureexpress/20090429/102379_1.shtml

And if location has these influences (because of factors such as peer effects and variation in local economic opportunities), does this justify public policy intervention? In what form? Could this even be one the most effective ways of combating inequality?

• Should governments bring the poor alongside the rich?http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23837804-residents-legal-threat-over-chelsea-barracks.do
• Or the rich alongside the poor?http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/davehillblog/video/2009/oct/09/housing-london-tory-social

As usual we meet on Friday at 6pm in STICERD common area.

Fri 21st May - Judges or Juries?

This week, Lucie will introduce a discussion on how economics might help us favour a particular judicial structure. Points of debate include the pros and cons of the jury trial system; the relative merits of judge's rulings vis-à-vis jury decisions; and whether judges should be elected or appointed.

Some background reading:

• The problem with judges : http://personal.lse.ac.uk/levyg1/judgerand.pdf
• Some empirical evidence on the differences between the systems : http://legal1.cit.cornell.edu/articles/h77clr1124_1177.pdf and http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/380412
• The system of trial by jury in England may be under threat : http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jun/18/criminal-trial-without-jury
• Should judges be elected? http://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/0002828042002606

As usual we meet on Friday 6pm in STICERD common area.

Fri 14th May - The Economics of Trading Votes

This week, Konrad will introduce a discussion on the economics of contractual arrangements for vote-buying and trading.


Background readings:

* R.H.Coase. “The Problem of Social Cost”. http://www.jstor.org/stable/724810


As usual we will meet in STICERD at 6pm this evening.

Fri 7th May - Nuclear Proliferation: Why Is Iran Different?

This week, Dan will introduce the very rich discussion about nuclear power and the case of Iran:

The west has been recently freaking out about the prospect of a nuclear Iran. The past few years have seen a number of new nuclear states (India, Pakistan, North Korea), which haven’t caused all the much concern. The US doesn’t seem to care that it’s ally Israel has a not-so-secret nuclear weapons program, and the US even signed a special nuclear cooperation agreement with India, even though they are not part of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. So why is Iran causing so much concern? What will happen if Iran gets the bomb?

Other questions: Do all countries have a moral right to get nuclear weapons? Can the west actually stop anyone who wants to get them? Should someone bomb their nuclear facilities? Will Iran nuke someone if they have the chance?

Background readings:

• An overview from the New York Times
• Discussion of whether a nuclear Iran is a problem
• Some arguments for bombing Iran

As usual we will meet in STICERD at 6pm this evening.