Tuesday's Assorted Links
Winter Olympics sports, American optimism, chicken tenders, artificial intelligence, and increasing birth rates
Hi y’all! Here are five stories from this week that contained some neat applications of economic principles or are related to teaching:
How accessible Winter Olympic sports are, based on where you live in the US [The Washington Post | Archive]
Americans’ optimism about the future last year fell to the lowest level since the measurement began in 2009 [Gallup]
A Boston Raising Cane’s is facing eviction over the smell of its chicken fingers [WFAB]
Artificial intelligence promised to reduce work, but new research says otherwise [Harvard Business Review]
The key to boosting US birth rates may be remote work [The New York Times | Archive]
I was recently interviewed for an episode of The Indicator from Planet Money to talk about the return of Hamburger Helper. Behind the boxed meal’s comeback are some very real economic forces: rising grocery prices, shifting consumer behavior, and a bit of nostalgia-driven decision-making.
This week’s article went beyond the cultural spotlight to examine Puerto Rico’s economy by the numbers. While the island is closely integrated into the U.S. economic system, income levels remain lower, unemployment higher, and growth slower than the mainland. If you missed it, take a few minutes to dive into the data behind the headlines.
Puerto Rico by the Numbers
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"Artificial intelligence promised to reduce work, but new research says otherwise"
Same as with any disruptive technology. It might reduce some kinds of work, but overall it's just going to shift the nature of work to other tasks. Some work we will even do more of because it feels easier. The aim of "increased productivity" remains constant, so none of this should be surprising.
On fertility. Of course. On current trajectory, by the end of this century, the only continent with a population still increasing will be Africa. And while Japan and China and South Korea and Europe (and the US) labor force would benefit from increased migration from Africa, there is so far little sign of that happening. On current trends, South Korea will be the world's first zero population country -- in 100 years it is projected to reach 7.5 million, after peaking at 52 million in 2030.
So far remote work policies, while promising, have not enabled any country to return to a replacement fertility rate. Actually, no country with a stable below-replacement rate has returned to a replacement fertility rate with any pro-fertility policies whatsoever, whether liberal (Sweden, France) or illiberal (Russia, Hungary).
Economists and policy-makers in the US focus almost exclusively on social policy to increase fertility -- avoiding thinking about or talking about the fertility effects of fertility-limiting pollution. The countries, including France, Sweden and Denmark, which have targeted a reduction in endocrine-disrupting chemicals (such as certain pesticides, phthalates, and bisphenols), along with liberal social pro-fertility policies, have all seen a rise in fertility, but none so far above replacement level. But keep an eye on this kind of combined set of policy approaches.