Re-release: Are Governments Effective?

Cognitive Engineering

As the UK continues its withdrawal from Afghanistan and the covid-19 pandemic lingers on, this week we revisit a podcast from March about the effectiveness of governments. ------------ The Covid pandemic has seen a sharp rise in government spending, and large scale testing and vaccination programmes. Some of these have been successful, while others less so. We look at whether, on balance, governments are an effective mechanism for achieving desirable outcomes. In this podcast, we explore the rationale for having governments in the first place and consider what activities it is appropriate for them to carry out. We look at what happens when the government gets it wrong and also examine what various data sources say about the relative effectiveness of the private and public sectors. A few things we mentioned in this podcast: - Chicago School of Economics www.investopedia.com/terms/c/chicago_school.asp - Milton Friedman – Four ways to spend money investorjunkie.com/economics/milto…ys-spend-money/ - Principle-Agent Problem www.investopedia.com/terms/p/princi…%20and%20agent. - Ambrogio Lorenzetti's Good and Bad Government www.visittuscany.com/en/attractions…ad-government/ - PSIRU report summarising some of the evidence www.epsu.org/sites/default/file…ncy%20EN%20fin.pdf - The effects of bad government www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/…d-government/ - What’s so bad about government anyway fee.org/articles/whats-so-bad…ig-government-anyway/ - What is rent-seeking? corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/…concept,It. For more information on Aleph Insights visit our website alephinsights.com or to get in touch about our podcast email [e-mail]