Extensive IP

Cuts on Education

Crime

Around the world, incarceration and conviction rates are high among the least educated. A number of recent studies find that this correlation reflects a causal relationship.

[...]

Health

Recent evidence suggests that educational attainment also improves health.

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Democracy

More educated societies tend to be more democratic, but does education actually improve citizenship and political engagement? Three recent individual-based analyses suggest that it does.[...]

More generally, education appears to increase political interest and other forms of political participation, as well as the extent to which individuals are informed about politics.

Lance Lochner

Avere un Blog (di Economia)

Interessante ricerca sull'economia dei blog di economia:
First, links from blogs cause a striking increase in the number of abstract views and downloads of economics papers. Second, blogging raises the profile of the blogger (and his or her institution) and boosts their reputation above economists with similar publication records. Finally, a blog can transform attitudes about some of the topics it covers.

e relativo commento sul blog di Paolo Manasse:

Dunque i blog di economia, almeno, quelli più diffusi, incidono sulla visibilità dei risultati scientifici presentati, sulla reputazione dei propri autori e sulle opinioni dei lettori: tre buone ragioni per perderci un po' di tempo. Ma c'è n'è una specifica per l'Italia, dove la concentrazione proprietaria nei media tradizionali, oltre ad abbassare visibilmente la qualità dell'informazione (economica e non), ne preclude l'accesso a quanti non facciano parte di una "elite" e/o non vogliano schierarsi con questo o quel partito/lobby: rompere gli oligopoli e liberare le idee.

Io aggiungo alcune delle mie motivazioni personali, motivazioni totalmente indipendenti dal fatto che il mio blog abbia dei lettori: tenermi un po' informato; raccogliere le mie stesse riflessioni, gli articoli e i link che ho di volta in volta ritenuto interessanti, per poterli ritrovare eventualmente in futuro; costringermi ad esprimere ed esplicitare in maniera vagamente ordinata i miei stessi pensieri che magari, se non dovessi fare lo sforzo di metterli in un post leggibile, rimarrebbero molto più confusi.

Insomma io trovo che il mio blog sia utile a me stesso, se poi qualcun altro lo troverà utile a qualcosa, ben venga.

If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.

Albert Einstein

(Sub)Prime Ministers and Italian Debt

(from Paolo Manasse's Blog)

Euro Tobin tax, FTT etc.

Years ago I used to find the idea appealing, and it is in some respects.
Now I am not so sure, even though I believe I have to think more about it.
I have the feeling it is not a good idea, not now, for Europe, not for Italy.
And I have two questions that I find crucial:
Who will ultimately pay it?
Isn't it just another tax, do we need more taxes?
Do we really need more taxes and a larger government in Italy?
Let's start getting an opinion...

Rogoff:

...while raising so much revenue with so low a tax rate sounds grand, the declining volume of trades would shrink the tax base precipitously. As a result, the ultimate revenue gains are likely to prove disappointing, as Sweden discovered when it attempted to tax financial transactions two decades ago. Worse still, over the long run, the tax burden would shift. Higher transactions taxes increase the cost of capital, ultimately lowering investment. With a lower capital stock, output would trend downward, reducing government revenues and substantially offsetting the direct gain from the tax. In the long run, wages would fall, and ordinary workers would end up bearing a significant share of the cost.

Stallman in Black and White

06 October 2011 (Steve Jobs)

Steve Jobs, the pioneer of the computer as a jail made cool, designed to sever fools from their freedom, has died.

As Chicago Mayor Harold Washington said of the corrupt former Mayor Daley, "I'm not glad he's dead, but I'm glad he's gone." Nobody deserves to have to die - not Jobs, not Mr. Bill, not even people guilty of bigger evils than theirs. But we all deserve the end of Jobs' malign influence on people's computing.

Unfortunately, that influence continues despite his absence. We can only hope his successors, as they attempt to carry on his legacy, will be less effective.

I do not think I can agree with this words.

Steve Jobs 1955-2011

Stay Hungry - Stay Foolish.

Oscurantismo Web

Wikipedia Italia is closing in anticipation of the s.c. "legge ammazza-blog"...

Dear reader,

at this time, the Italian language Wikipedia may be no longer able to continue providing the service that over the years was useful to you, and that you expected to have right now. As things stand, the page you want still exists and is only hidden, but the risk is that soon we will be forced to actually delete it. [...]

Continue at:
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Comunicato_4_ottobre_2011/en

At least Nonciclopedia is still there, even after the Vasco Rossi case...

Cartoons

(leftycartoons.com)

SanCarloalleMortelle: Il vecchio terribile

Rimando con piacere ad un post su un mio parente.

SanCarloalleMortelle: Il vecchio terribile: Più di un amico (ma in particolare l'Avvocato Luciano Trimarco suo "simpatizzante"), mi ha chiesto di conoscere qualche dato in più sulla fi...