Attention Economy


Monday, December 18, 2017

Why Economics as a Discipline Needs to be Less US-Centric

Economics as a discipline is almost entirely dominated by US-based universities (nearly all the top journals are based at leading American economics departments and most of the top international economists obtained their graduate education in the US). This creates a strange worldview – major policy debates are often entirely US-centric and ignore the fact that the rest of the world differs in significant ways from America and may in fact offer some useful lessons.
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Imagine if the debate regarding taxes and the size of the government was approached from an international perspective. Can we actually learn something from looking at the experiences of the 96% of the world’s population that does not live in the United States?

Here are a few pieces that provide an international perspective on key issues:
Taxes Are Low in the U.S., But Other Stuff Is Expensive
Why Canada Is Able to Do Things Better
5 Reasons Germany Isn't Suffering in the 21st Century
America in the early part of 21st century

SIMPLIFYING THE TAX CODE