84
votes
Accepted
Why do economists disagree so much?
Some areas of economics have more consensus and predictive power than others. Most economists would agree on the effects of trade barriers, could fairly accurately forecast the effects of a price ...
- 17k
82
votes
Accepted
If women are paid less for the same work, why don't employers hire just women?
There could be several reasons here are just few:
Principal-agent problems. Firms are typically not managed by their owners but by managers (agents) who act on the behalf of owners/shareholders (...
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79
votes
A law against selling any house cheaper than it was bought for, what consequences would that have?
That would be really, really bad.
Any house that loses value will be unsellable, and thus virtually worthless.
Most people living in such a house would be prevented from moving. They cannot sell it, ...
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41
votes
People pathologically hoard so much cash that they impoverish the entire nation
But when people pathologically hoard so much cash that they impoverish
the entire nation
This sentence seems to imply that we should fault the rich not because they are rich, but because they do ...
40
votes
Why do low-income earners tend to spend more?
Marginal propensity to consume is the proportion of an aggregate raise in pay that a consumer spends on the consumption of goods and services, as opposed to saving it. If someone gets extra income $\\...
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37
votes
Could eliminating all taxes and only creating new money theoretically work?
It would not work.
Historically speaking, governments that try to fund their operations primarily via the printing press experience not just inflation but hyper-inflation. Why? Well, one explanation ...
- 503
36
votes
If women are paid less for the same work, why don't employers hire just women?
Quite simple. If women are paid less, then that's because people believe their work to be worth less. The same believe, that womens work is worth less, then stops employers from hiring more women.
(...
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34
votes
Why do different countries have different currency?
Two reasons: history and ability to control the money supply.
History: paper-money started by being issued by trustworthy agents from kings/governments, as a way to be able to transfer the ownership ...
- 2,155
32
votes
Did real incomes drop significantly since the 1950s?
Most of the US real earnings data which go only as far as mid 60s. According to the statista data presented in this article by world economic forum the evolution of real hourly earnings in the US for ...
- 58.5k
31
votes
Accepted
Why do different countries have different currency?
I will focus on some economics reasons not mentioned explicitly so far. There are economic benefits to having your own currency. Your question essentially raises the question of so-called "Optimum ...
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31
votes
Accepted
Why do many occupations show a gender bias?
I should say pre-emptively that I'm not satisfied with ideas that merely may explain the effect, as yesterday's question produced a proliferation of rationalisations and claims that lacked rigour.
I'...
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30
votes
Accepted
Do companies have non compete agreements between each other?
This is known as dividing markets or market allocation, and it is against the law in the US, the EU, and I imagine in most countries with antitrust laws.
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30
votes
If women are paid less for the same work, why don't employers hire just women?
Because women are not paid less for the same work when all the variables are taken into equasion.
Caveat: below answer is a nearly verbatim copy of my earlier answer on Politics.SE on the topic
In ...
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29
votes
A law against selling any house cheaper than it was bought for, what consequences would that have?
And everyone is safe, the crash prevented and everyone will keep making millions simply by borrowing more for risk free "investing" in simply owning ones own house, right?
It is true, your investment ...
- 401
29
votes
Does a store suffering increased theft generally cause higher prices?
prices should have already been set to maximize the trade off between profit-per-sale and volume sold
But profit-per-sale depends on costs, which depends on the theft numbers, so if theft increases, ...
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28
votes
How do economists explain why people contribute to Wikipedia?
Voluntarily contributing to a public good (such as Wikipedia) is a strong social norm. The tendency to follow such norms even if this is costly in the short run has developed over humans' evolutionary ...
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23
votes
How do economists explain why people contribute to Wikipedia?
I wouldn't underestimate the role of learning by answering.
Drafting a significant text typically forces a person to put their thoughts in order, to engage in research, and then to structure the ...
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22
votes
Did real incomes drop significantly since the 1950s?
Average standard of living is massively higher today compared to the 1950s, primarly due to technological progress.
Even a cheap low end car today is much better than the big cars of the 1950s, it is ...
- 967
22
votes
Accepted
Are democracies more economically productive than autocracies?
In economics, it is accepted that countries with good 'inclusive' institutions, such as strong property rights, are more productive and able to develop faster (or even develop at all) than countries ...
- 58.5k
21
votes
Why do economists disagree so much?
In addition to Ubiquitous' excellent answer, I will also point out the general lack of experimental controls in economics. Your example about crash-testing a car is an easily designed, perfectly ...
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20
votes
Why do we need to "get the economy moving again"?
Both Alice and Kate have bills to pay, regardless of whether they are earning money or not. Restaurants and salons have to pay rent and maintenance on their properties whether they are in business or ...
- 301
20
votes
Does a store suffering increased theft generally cause higher prices?
What you're describing is retail shrink.
It is taken into consideration when setting prices. A business will typically have consultants come in, measure their shrink to be X percent, and prices will ...
- 301
19
votes
Why do many occupations show a gender bias?
I'm hesitant whether to write this as an answer or as a comment for why this question should be closed as off-topic, since the reasons likely have little to do with economics. Since you did ...
- 430
18
votes
Could eliminating all taxes and only creating new money theoretically work?
tl;dr this would not work in either closed or open economy unless your proposal would include very large cuts to current social and welfare spending as only arguably small part of those could be ...
- 58.5k
15
votes
Did real incomes drop significantly since the 1950s?
The book “The Two Income Trap” (2003) by Elizabeth Warren (recent Democratic presidential candidate) and Amelia Warren Tyagi discussed this. They looked at spending breakdowns in the 1970s and when ...
- 9,907
15
votes
How do economists explain why people contribute to Wikipedia?
tl;dr: There could be multiple explanations depending on how you want to treat Wikipedia. If you want to treat Wikipedia as public good where everyone contributes a small part towards its creation and ...
- 58.5k
14
votes
People pathologically hoard so much cash that they impoverish the entire nation
Her position isn't quite untrue. If you define poor and rich relatively, you cannot have "poor" without having "rich." However, this has little to do with hoarding.
We often think of money in terms ...
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14
votes
Accepted
Why don't profitable firms use previous profits to offset current loss
The primary goal of most companies is to make money for its shareholders. They put money in, and they expect to either get dividends, or be able to resell their shares for a higher amount. It's the ...
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