LEE JAE-WON
A roundup of the best economic posts on the Web
Using solar power to extract oil
With a hat tip to Rescuing the Frog, The New York Times looks at a California company that is using solar energy to power the enchanced recovery of oil:
"The process is cheaper than using natural gas, even at today's depressed prices for that fuel, and trims the carbon footprint of the gasoline, according to GlassPoint. The pilot plant, completed in January in Kern County, is very modest, occupying less than an acre and producing only about a million B.T.U.'s per hour. But the company says it could quickly be replicated on a larger scale and could eventually displace 80 per cent of the natural gas used to produce a barrel of oil."
Are friends important in educational outcomes?
A study on VoxEU suggests that current high-shoolers should choose their friends carefully:
"We find that the most relevant peers are the friends people make in grade 10-12, from when they are around 15 years old. This suggests that individuals are more likely to work towards and apply to college if this choice is popular among their peers, especially in the last years at school. This could represent the effect of contagion and collective socialisation and mean that any education policy targeting specific individuals will have multiplier effects."
Divine Coincidence Failure. UK lessons for the Bank of Canada
At Worthwhile Canadian Initiative, Nick Rowe looks at the UK's experience of the past three years (high inflation, low output) and urges the Bank of Canada not to tinker with its 2-per-cent inflation target:
"If we do change the Bank of Canada's 2% inflation target, there has to be a very good reason for doing so. Swapping 2% for 1% inflation, just seems like tempting fate for minimal gains."
Smaller government can be a drag (on growth)
New York Times Economix says fears of rising oil prices threatening the U.S. economy are misplaced:
"...[W] could just have easily written another 1,000 words on the perils shrinking governments now present to the economy. ... Output last quarter grew more slowly than initially reported, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis: an annual rate of 2.8 per cent rather than 3.2 percent. One of the main reasons for the downward revision was that state and local governments cut their spending at a 2.4 per cent annual pace."
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