Skeptics Stack Exchange
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Questions tagged [economics]

Economics is the analytical study of the costs and benefits of producing, distributing, and consuming goods and services. This tag should not be used for personal finance questions, nor for most questions about expensive items, e.g. exorbitantly priced houses, autos, jewelry. It can be used for current events, and in historical contexts.

  • Macroeconomics concerns itself with behaviors, trends and efficiency at an economy-wide level.
  • Microeconomics focuses on firm-level and specific industry-scale behavior, e.g. individual transactions, forces of supply and demand, competitive markets participants versus those who wield pricing power.

Economic concepts are applicable to business enterprises in the private sector, as well as in government. Economic systems vary, from laissez-faire to central planning. The scope of economic thought is broad, influencing social welfare programs, foreign trade, monetary policy, and much more.

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Do commercial airline pilots make around $19,000 - $25,000 per year?

I always thought pilots were paid well. I am currently watching the movie "Capitalism, A love Story," and Michael Moore interviews some pilots, in which the pilots say they make around $19,000 - $25,000 per year as their starting salary flying…
Vinoth Kumar C M
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Is drug development far cheaper than Big Pharma wants us to believe?

In an article titled "The Make-Believe Billion - How drug companies exaggerate research costs to justify absurd profits" in Slate the author writes about a new study about the costs of drug development. The common cost for the development of a new…
Mad Scientist
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Do Greeks evade taxes by not finishing their houses?

I've heard this claim several times: Q: Why are there so many unfinished houses in Greece? A: as long as the house is not finished, they don't have to pay building tax for it. So the leave it unfinished in order to evade this tax. Is this true?
oefe
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Did a Soviet nail factory produce useless nails to improve metrics?

We've all heard the story, which sounds for all the world like a typical urban legend. It goes something like this: Once upon a time, there was a factory in the Soviet Union that made nails. Unfortunately, Moscow set quotas on their nail…
Mason Wheeler
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Are there 24 empty houses "available" per homeless person in the USA?

I just saw this meme on Facebook: Since this question answered the ratio question, I would like to know if these houses are "available for" those homeless?
Cees Timmerman
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Was pepper once worth its weight in gold?

It's a frequent claim that common black pepper was worth its weight in gold in early modern times. Just yesterday I heard it again in a documentary about the Dutch East India Company's spice trade in the 17th century. There is no doubt that the…
Michael Borgwardt
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Could McDonald's pay a $10.10 minimum wage with an increase of only 4¢ per meal?

This caught my eye and seems like powerful statement, if true. WARREN: During my Senate campaign, I ate a number 11 at McDonald’s many, many times a week. I know the price on that. $7.19. According to the data on the analysis of what would happen…
Evan Carroll
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Do performance incentives work for knowledge workers?

In this animated video of his talk, Dan Pink claims performance incentives do not work, and can actually lead to worse performance. In summary, he quotes two studies (which he unfortunately does not name) where people are asked to do a task, and…
knatten
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Is empowerment of women a cure for poverty?

It is stated that giving women equality and control over their reproduction reduces the poverty in any community. Christopher Hitchens: "We already know the cure to poverty...it's quite simply, the empowerment of women." While I tend to believe…
Kostya
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Are there more Greeks driving Porsche Cayennes than paying high-rate tax?

The following claim has been attributed to economist Professor Herakles Polemarchakis. A couple of years ago, there were more Cayennes circulating in Greece than individuals who declared and paid taxes on an annual income of more than €50,000,…
Tom
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Is there a wealth gap in Boston where the median net worth of white households is $247,500 while the median net worth for black families was $8?

This quote—or some variant of it—has been floating around the news and social media world; this comes from Boston.com on July 26, 2019: According to a 2015 report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, the median net worth of white households in…
Giacomo1968
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Is the economic situation portrayed in "Loving" accurate?

The recent movie Loving is acclaimed for its historical accuracy. Whereas the story about the case in front of the supreme court is documented as someone from a much later generation I am skeptic but uninformed about the economic situation portrayed…
Alexander
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Are Fair Trade products guaranteed to be 'fairer'?

I was wondering about Fair Trade foods/products (products carrying the international certificate) as I have never seen an actual policy or standards on how much farmers/producers get paid. Is there a standard cut or a policy that guarantees that…
seadowg
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Did China shut down a port for one COVID-19 case and did this closure have a bigger impact than the blocking of the Suez canal?

Journalist Fabian Kretschmer claimed in a DW interview (at 1m56): For every case you have to shut down a factory, you have to shut down a port. In May, for example, they had to shut down the Yantian port near Shenzen, and that was basically the…
Fizz
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Does Louis Vuitton burn all their unsold bags?

It first ran across the notion with this meme Every year Louis Vuitton burns all their unsold bags A google search yields lots of results but none of them seems credible. Snopes yields nothing. Any credible info?
raam86
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