Tag Archives: public policy

Figuring Out How Many Calories Are in Your Burrito

Posted on April 28, 2014

As if the Affordable Care Act wasn’t controversial enough, a lesser-known provision of the law has critics warning of regulatory zeal. Section 4205  of the ACA (in case you haven’t read that far) requires restaurants to post calorie counts for the … Continue reading →

Posted in Behavioral Economics and Public Policy | Tagged ,

How Little Did We Accomplish with First Round of Fiscal Cliff Negotiations?

Posted on January 8, 2013

Here is a quick summary from the Wall Street Journal of what the U.S. Federal Debt looks like now that we have avoided, at least for now, the fiscal cliff.  As you will see, we didn’t do much to balance … Continue reading →

Posted in Miscellaneous | Tagged

What Airplane Safety, Mammograms, and Gun Massacres Have in Common

Posted on December 19, 2012

Gun rights advocates are correct: a well armed principal might have reduced the death toll from the tragic elementary school shootings in Connecticut last week. Gun carrying citizens might also have been able to take down the shooters in Aurora and … Continue reading →

Posted in Miscellaneous | Tagged ,

Evaluating the Quality of Charter Schools and Tertiary Care Hospitals

Posted on December 5, 2012

If Americans judged the quality of hospital care the way Newsweek judges high schools, we would soon be inundated with “charter hospitals” that only treat healthy patients. As reported in The New YorkTimes , thirty-seven of Newsweek’s top 50 high schools … Continue reading →

Posted in Health Policy | Tagged , , ,

Why We Need More Twelve-Year-Olds Teaching Health Policy

Posted on August 23, 2012

I come from an ardent Republican family.  Suspicion of government, you could say, runs in my genes.  No surprise then that the first time my parents and siblings heard about Obama’s individual health insurance mandate, they were against it… (Read … Continue reading →

Posted in Health Policy | Tagged , ,

How Irrationality Can Reduce Traffic Jams

Posted on July 16, 2012

In Singapore, rush hour at the Mass Rapid Transit trains can involve more body contact than a full on TSA pat down, the train so packed you will know whether the guy next to you had garlic toast for breakfast.  … Continue reading →

Posted in Behavioral Economics and Public Policy | Tagged ,