Monthly Archives: April 2013

Shortly after taking office last year, President Joyce Banda gave up on the Malawian Kwacha’s fixed peg against the dollar. Since then the exchange rate has evidently been some kind of managed float, meaning the rates are set in international … Continue reading →

From the Statalist FAQ (emphasis mine): 4.1 What is the correct way to pronounce ‘Stata’? Stata is an invented word. Some pronounce it with a long a as in day (Stay-ta); some pronounce it with a short a as in flat … Continue reading →

As an economist and also somebody who loves facts, I never stop beating the drum of sticker prices vs. purchase prices in higher education. Long story short, the dizzying rise in sticker prices (the headline numbers decried by the news … Continue reading →

Joe Golden shared this Atlantic piece on the evolution of airfares, and the way airfare is priced now. It reaches the same conclusion I have: airline tickets are a very strange market, characterized by many constraints, limited competition between sellers, … Continue reading →

A friend recently sent me the following Actual Advice Mallard, containing a strategy for buying airline tickets that is the hot new thing on the interwebs: A link from Chris Blattman’s blog indicates that the source of this claim is … Continue reading →