Debunking Krugman

As a former school administrator, I am always fascinated by the use of statistics in order to explain either educational progress or failure. I remember sitting in countless meetings cringing while listening to such manipulations. But we were just amateurs when it came to using data to justify conclusions. For a real master at this game one has to read Paul Krugman at the New York Times.

In his last column, Krugman uses ACT and SAT data to show that Texas students are performing below Wisconsin students. Ergo, Wisconsin students are the beneficiaries of teachers that have a right to collective bargain, while Texas students suffer because their teachers have no such right.

Thank God for the age of the Internet.  In a short period after the publication of the article, Iowahawk published an entry that shows how similar data can be used to demonstrate that students in Texas are performing better than those of Wisconsin when taking into consideration ethnic breakdown and the perorfomance of different ethnic groups on the national level.

Read the article by clicking here: Longhorns 17, Badgers 1

Krugman v. Krugman

Paul Krugman takes note in his New York Times column of what the calls "the incredible gap that has opened up between the parties":

Today, Democrats and Republicans live in different universes, both intellectually and morally.
"What Democrats believe," he says "is what textbook economics says" 

But that's not how Republicans see it. Here's what Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, had to say when defending Mr. Bunning's position (although not joining his blockade): unemployment relief "doesn't create new jobs. In fact, if anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work."

Krugman scoffs: "To me, that's a bizarre point of view--but then, I don't live in Mr. Kyl's universe."

What does textbook economics have to say about this question? Here is a passage from a textbook called "Macroeconomics":

Public policy designed to help workers who lose their jobs can lead to structural unemployment as an unintended side effect. . . . In other countries, particularly in Europe, benefits are more generous and last longer. The drawback to this generosity is that it reduces a worker's incentive to quickly find a new job. Generous unemployment benefits in some European countries are widely believed to be one of the main causes of "Eurosclerosis," the persistent high unemployment that affects a number of European countries.

So it turns out that what Krugman calls Sen. Kyl's "bizarre point of view" is, in fact, textbook economics. The authors of that textbook are Paul Krugman and Robin Wells. Miss Wells is also known as Mrs. Paul Krugman.

Quoted from Best of the Web