According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the price of farmland, averaged across the whole country, fell in 2015. That puts the official seal on what people involved with farming in the Midwest have felt for two years — that…
Economists not as hot on all trade deals as you might think
Both presidential candidates now oppose new trade deals. Most saliently the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement that awaits ratification by Congress. But that may cause much less distress for economists than many would assume. That lower trade barriers can increase economic efficiency…
Study links race, education with earnings potential
What people earn on average differs among gender and race. Men earn more than women, and whites earn more than members of other races. But beyond these general facts, things get complicated: What jobs are people seeking and getting? What…
Numbers can be enlightening and misleading
More than a century ago, Irish physicist William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) argued that numerical data is fundamental in research: “When you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind.” That meshes with the contemporary…