Hey just in case you come to this website for actual news instead of blatherings, I'm proud to announce that the Department of Economics will still have regular tutoring during Winter 2011!
Tutors will be available from 11am-4:30pm at the Economics Undergraduate Lab on the third floor of Ballard Extension Hall. We're at the north end of the long hallway, and we can help you with ECON 201 and 202, principles of microeconomics and macroeconomics. We also have computers at the lab if you need help with blackboard or other internet material.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Comic books and misplaced incentives
I've started reading a new comic book called Chew, mostly because the main character is Asian, and how often does that happen? Chew is about detective Tony Chu, a cibopath. When he eats something, animal, vegetable, or mineral, he gets visions of the dead meal's life. This becomes useful when he's recruited by the FDA to be a lead investigator. In the world of Chew, the FDA is the largest and most powerful law enforcement agency in America. After avian bird flu turned out to be a dangerous plague killing millions of Americans, the FDA declared a prohibition on chicken, and became a tyrannical secret police force.
Though of course this comic book is a humorous exaggeration of real life, it does touch upon a weird problem government agencies have. The FDA both advises food and drug laws and enforces those laws passed by our legislatures. This gives the FDA incentive to push for laws that increase enforcement levels and argue against laws that require less enforcement. The FDA wants to survive, so obviously it may have incentive to tell a story more grim than may be true.
If this is sounding a bit like mad conspiracy talk, I'll try to respond with that I don't think the amount this conflict of interest causes poor governance is necessarily high. I have no proof of that. I do think though that most economically-educated people would agree that having an agency both in charge of advising policy and enforcing policy creates an unwanted incentive for the agency to overpromote enforcement.
Though of course this comic book is a humorous exaggeration of real life, it does touch upon a weird problem government agencies have. The FDA both advises food and drug laws and enforces those laws passed by our legislatures. This gives the FDA incentive to push for laws that increase enforcement levels and argue against laws that require less enforcement. The FDA wants to survive, so obviously it may have incentive to tell a story more grim than may be true.
If this is sounding a bit like mad conspiracy talk, I'll try to respond with that I don't think the amount this conflict of interest causes poor governance is necessarily high. I have no proof of that. I do think though that most economically-educated people would agree that having an agency both in charge of advising policy and enforcing policy creates an unwanted incentive for the agency to overpromote enforcement.
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