Skeptics Stack Exchange
Skeptics Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [economics]

Economics is the analytical study of the costs and benefits of producing, distributing, and consuming goods and services. This tag should not be used for personal finance questions, nor for most questions about expensive items, e.g. exorbitantly priced houses, autos, jewelry. It can be used for current events, and in historical contexts.

  • Macroeconomics concerns itself with behaviors, trends and efficiency at an economy-wide level.
  • Microeconomics focuses on firm-level and specific industry-scale behavior, e.g. individual transactions, forces of supply and demand, competitive markets participants versus those who wield pricing power.

Economic concepts are applicable to business enterprises in the private sector, as well as in government. Economic systems vary, from laissez-faire to central planning. The scope of economic thought is broad, influencing social welfare programs, foreign trade, monetary policy, and much more.

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What are the scientifically established effects of Daylight Saving Time?

Since the US recently went on to DST, I thought it'd be appropriate to ask this: I've heard many claims made about DST, ranging from "It saves electricity" to "It balances out daylight hours" to "It gives people more sunlit free time in the…
anthony137
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Do the rich get richer and the poor get poorer?

From the Wikipedia page "The rich get richer and the poor get poorer" is a catchphrase and proverb, frequently used (with variations in wording) in discussing economic inequality. Its most common use is as a synopsis of a socialist criticism of the…
user1873
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Are Fair Trade products guaranteed to be 'fairer'?

I was wondering about Fair Trade foods/products (products carrying the international certificate) as I have never seen an actual policy or standards on how much farmers/producers get paid. Is there a standard cut or a policy that guarantees that…
seadowg
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Is the economic situation portrayed in "Loving" accurate?

The recent movie Loving is acclaimed for its historical accuracy. Whereas the story about the case in front of the supreme court is documented as someone from a much later generation I am skeptic but uninformed about the economic situation portrayed…
Alexander
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Can we end poverty for $US175 billion per year?

A recent question brought up the claim that poverty can be eliminated for 175 billion a year. I found this claim To end extreme poverty worldwide in 20 years, Sachs calculated that the total cost per year would be about $175 billion. This…
Chad
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Were iron nails at one time so scarce that pioneers in America burned down their cottages to retrieve them?

Heilbroner and Thurow, Economics Explained (1982, 1998): Iron nails were so scarce that pioneers in America burned down their cottages to retrieve them. Another writer (2003): Nails at one time were so expensive and in such demand that it was…
user17967
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Is bribery damaging to society?

Many commentators in the developed countries insist that bribery is a form of corruption and needs to be stamped out in developing countries, contending that it is bad for the people. The main argument is that increases the gap between the rich and…
going
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Is the global inequality as measured by the Gini index rising or falling?

Olle Hammar et al write in Global Earnings Inequality, 1970–2015: Our main finding is that global earnings inequality has declined, primarily during the 2000s, when the global Gini coefficient dropped nearly 10 points …
Christian
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Were more than a half of all Silicon Valley tech companies founded by immigrants between 1995 and 2005?

Source: CNN Global Public Square: A new book caught my eye this week. It’s called The Immigrant Exodus by Vivek Wadhwa, a former tech entrepreneur who now studies and lectures on immigration. He has some fascinating findings. Wadhwa says between…
Carlo Alterego
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Does offshoring ultimately help the offshoring-country's poor and middle classes?

Are claims about the positive economic effects of offshore outsourcing for the poor and middle class of the outsourcing country verifiable? The main argument for Offshore Outsourcing, is the common economic justification that "a rising tide floats…
Mark Rogers
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Do Kondratiev waves predict long-term economic trends?

Kondratiev waves are a model of long-term economic growth. Averaging fifty and ranging from approximately forty to sixty years in length, the cycles consist of alternating periods between high sectoral growth and periods of relatively slow growth.…
Roland Kofler
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Do companies sometimes sabotage their products before selling them?

This might be the case for the iPhone. I'm skeptic that this is a general practice because on the surface, customers would just migrate to competing products... Maybe this practice is common for products that are in the lead/have a monopoly? From…
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Does wealth reduce compassion?

Daisy Grewal writes in the Scientific American in the article How Wealth Reduces Compassion: But research suggests the opposite is true: as people climb the social ladder, their compassionate feelings towards other people decline. Is that opinion…
Christian
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In the economic crisis of 2008, were some companies truly "too big to fail"?

During the first of the half of the current economic crisis, some companies began to collapse due to the subprime mortgage crisis or from the cascading economic damage that it entailed. A danger was seen in allowing some large important companies…
Mark Rogers
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Is racial income inequality currently in US worse than it was in Apartheid South Africa

As reported here, (and here) white/black wealth inequality is worse now in the US than it was under Apartheid South Africa. The figures brought up during the segment are backed up, too. America's income inequality gap has gotten worse in the past…
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