Translated material
Rats suggested a way to get the economy out of stress
The constant stress that people experience is only by the US economy in $ 300 billion a year: with the help of rats, scientists have found a new way to cope with it. The fact that the economists wrote about what interesting in their blogs in their blogs, we talk along with the Econs portal.
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New panacea for stress
The pleasure of mastering new skills reduces the level of stress, says the Marginal Revolution blog on the study of the University of Richmond. Researchers taught rats to drive tiny electric cars and found that after performing such a task in the body, animals produces an increased level of hormone associated with anti -stress. Scientists associate this with satisfaction from obtaining new skills. Due to the stress experienced only by the US economy, the US economy loses about $ 300 billion annually due to a decrease in performance, medical, legal and insurance costs. Such experiments can help develop non -drug treatment of depression and mental illness, researchers say.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWCSV6TMGMG
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Dictator dilemma
As a rational autocrat, to handle the free press, the Canadian economist Pierre Lemier reflects in the ironic post on the Econlog blog. It is not easy to be an autocrat. On the one hand, the free press holds the authorities liable, revealing about them what they would not want to see opened. On the other hand, it is useful to the autocrat, as it provides him with information about the economy and moods of people and thereby acts as a competitive source of information about the work of his own employees: after all, the apparatchik is unlikely to tell that the people are dissatisfied, - by coming this, he risks his position. A similar dilemma of autocrat has repeatedly been considered by researchers (for example, here and here ). In other words, the autocrat needs a free press, but that no one except him read it except him, reminds Lemier of the intention of US President Donald Trump to limit the state institution’s subscription to The New York Times and The Washington Post, which Trump himself reads regularly. One of the ways to solve this dilemma is to convince his supporters that the press spreads fake news and in general the “enemy of the people”, argues Lemier. But such balance, especially in a democratic society, will not be stable, he doubts: the more the press will write about the policy of the ruler, the more people will be convinced that the “king is naked”, and the stronger the environment will convince the ruler that the press is all lying.
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What to do with China
How to reconcile everyone with China, and China with everyone is a former White House economist in international trade, CED Boone and Jennifer Hillman, from the Council on International Relations, offer to reconsider the WTO rules regarding the subsidies “in the light of the Chinese economic model” - it was Chinese industrial policy and state consumption that became a stumbling stone and the main argument in the increase in the US administration for the Chinese import. The WTO Rules in relation to subsidies have many drawbacks, and the Chinese model put them to the fore. In addition, a recent study by the OECD of the world aluminum industry shows that China is far from lonely in subsidizing its industry. On the eve of the trade war, the United States, the European Union and Japan initiated tripartite work on the preparation of new subsidy rules, this work secretly continued in 2018-2019 - it now needs to be put at the forefront and attract China to participation. And although China will be the largest beneficiary of the reform of subsidies, it is necessary that new norms are applicable to all large economies. “Any deal with China will be associated with compromises. The answer cannot be simply in redevelopment of the rules in such a way that it becomes easier to impose penalties for China, ”experts warn.
Another compromise with China is offered in a joint statement by a group of authoritative economists and lawyers of the United States and China: its application, made on October 27, is announced in his blog by a world -famous economist, professor of international political economy, Harvard Dani Rodrik. The working group in the trade policy of the United States and China, represented by almost three dozen economists and lawyers, including five Nobel laureates, was created on the initiative of several scientists from China and the USA, including Rodrika. Neither rapprochement nor rejection is impossible, therefore, experts offer the middle path: it consists in the ban on the policy of “ruin a neighbor”, but otherwise it allows actions that can create cross -border side effects. So, monopolies, predatory pricing policy, the redistribution of rent in world markets will be directly prohibited, while measures that protect domestic economic mechanisms (for example, industrial policy or social protection) will be allowed if they do not fall into the first category. “We argue that countries have the right to pursue a trading policy that protects their economic models,” Rodrik writes: but the states cannot pursue a policy aimed at forcing others to change their systems with the help of trade wars or to receive benefits by “ruin ruin”.
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Centuries -old stagnation
The budget policy should play a more active role in restoring economic growth, the chief economist of the OECR Lawrence Bun and the head of the Directorate on Economic and Financial Issues of the European Commission Marco Boti write on the blog . After several years of stable growth, world economic activity in 2019 sharply slowed down due to the reduction in trade and investment provoked, in turn, by strengthening the economic tension between China and the United States, geopolitical events in the Middle East and the political dead end of Brexit. The fears of the “centuries -old stagnation” (Secular Stagnation) of the USA and Europe have increased. At the same time, the possibilities of supporting growth from the part of monetary policy are limited by the level of bets close to zero, and the support only on it seems inadequate. It is necessary, while inflation remains below the target level, to use fiscal expansion measures, experts advise. State investments in infrastructure, education, mitigation of climate change could support growth and make it more stable, as well as structural reforms - a decrease in barriers to entrepreneurship, supporting R&D and technology implementation.