A new empirical economic study (go here and here) by Alexander Gelber and Matthew Weinzierl says that some tax policies that put more money in the pocket of low-income U.S. parents are associated positively with their children's academic abilities. This study comes at an interesting time given the recent debate about whether there should be […]

As described in this article by Emily Badger: In the years leading up to the housing crash, public data suggest that black would-be homeowners in Detroit were 70 percent more likely than white borrowers to receive a risky subprime loan from the now-defunct lender New Century Mortgage Company. This is the central statistic embedded in […]

Read about it here. Check out this excerpt: The economic significance of the disagreement [between conservatives and liberals about the role of luck in financial success] has mainly to do with taxation. Taxing success that is attributable to pure luck does not have disincentive effects, and so is a cheap away of financing government. Taxing […]

by Paul Alan Levy In a decision issued this morning, the Massachusetts Appeals Court affirmed the dismissal of the trademark claims brought by Massachusetts software company Jenzabar against documentary filmmaker Long Bow Group, claiming that the use of the name “Jenzabar” in the keyword meta tag and the title tag for a web page about […]

by Paul Alan Levy The recent response by PhoenixNAP to a takedown demand from Kasim Reed, the mayor of Atlanta Georgia, showed its Internet customers that it cannot be counted on to stand up for their rights.   Reed was unhappy that Lipstick Alley, a gossip site with particular traction among African-American women, carried an exchange […]

The contraception coverage mandate in the Affordable Care Act is important to many consumers. Some of the mandate's opponents claim that it violates the First Amendment's Religion Clauses. This article by Brigham Young University law professor Frederick Gedicks concludes that the mandate is constitutional.

Here.

This short piece in the British Medical Journal, focusing on a fatty-food tax in Denmark, says that the evidence is equivocal. One problem is that consumers may respond to a fatty-food tax by substituting cheaper (but still fatty) foods for more expensive fatty foods. Another problem, believe it or not, is that consumers may buy […]

Here.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau student loan ombudsman, Rohit Chopra, has issued his first annual report required by the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. Michelle Singletary of the Washington Post says that the report may portend a finanical crisis. The report's executive summary appears after the jump.