Omar AlUbaydli
@omareconomics
Bahraini economist at @GMU, @mercatus, and @GulfStatesInst, president of @bah_economists, columnist at @thenationalnews
A common error is to think that markets only deliver desirable outcomes under "perfect" conditions. Friedrich Hayek argued differently. My @PLOSONE paper with @BrianCAlbrecht and @PeterBoettke examines the theory and the evidence from field experiments. journals.plos.org/plosone/articl…
In the fight against obesity and diabetes, the UAE's new sugar tax policy could be a handy arrow in its quiver, writes Omar Al-Ubaydli #Opinion | @omareconomics thenationalnews.com/opinion/commen…
My latest @TheNationalNews article: A variable sugar tax can help the UAE thenationalnews.com/opinion/commen… The UAE’s decision to switch from a fixed tax on sugary drinks to one that depends on the sugar content per 100 millilitres is a positive step in the fight against obesity and…
The UAE is correct in its decision to avoid the “drop in the bucket” fallacy, whereby people avoid taking small steps because they believe that the impact will be negligible Opinion | Omar Al Ubaydli @omareconomics thenationalnews.com//opinion/comme…
Xi Jinping appears to understand comparative advantage, the knowledge problem, and bureaucratic sclerosis better than any Western leader bar Milei. You'd say the one advantage the West still has is democracy, but a miseducated population is screwing that up so badly, it's moot.
Xi Jinping questions whether every province needs to be developing industries in AI, compute, and EVs. From the Central Urban Work Meeting: “When it comes to launching projects, it’s always the same few things: artificial intelligence, computing power, and new energy vehicles.…
In the European Economic Review, @ccoyne1, @AndrQuintas5 & I build on James C. Scott's work on legibility. We compare how legibility is developed across alternative institutional settings.
Write down a model. Trust me. Start with supply and demand. It helps avoid lots of confusion, especially about complex tompics economicforces.xyz/p/curing-inter…
📊 New research settles the inflation debate: @DavidBeckworth and @Pat_Horan92 found that 85% of 2021-22 inflation came from excess demand, not supply shocks. Translation: When you flood an economy already at capacity, you get higher prices, not more stuff. What does that mean…
My @semafor article: Gulf philanthropy is key to scientific breakthroughs waf.stage.semafor.com/article/07/16/… The war between Israel and Iran demonstrated the strategic value of advanced technologies and holds lessons for the Gulf, specifically on who foots the bill for innovation.…
"This paper develops a complete-markets model to analyze the determinants of endogenous trade imbalances across countries." NEW Discussion Paper by Lorenzo Caliendo, Samuel Kortum, and Fernando Parro: cowles.yale.edu/research/cfdp-…
“The power that a millionaire has over me is much less than that of the smallest bureaucrat who wields the coercive power of the state, and on whose discretion it depends whether and how I am to be allowed to live or work.” — Friedrich Hayek
Our paper "Is Mobile Money Changing Rural Africa? Evidence from a Field Experiment" is now in print in the Review of Economics and Statistics! Main finding? Mobile money increased out-migration from rural areas and reduced agricultural investment. 🔗 doi.org/10.1162/rest_a…
Yes. Writing is not a second thing that happens after thinking. The act of writing is an act of thinking. Writing *is* thinking. Students, academics, and anyone else who outsources their writing to LLMs will find their screens full of words and their minds emptied of thought.
Yes I did. I fear she is correct - McLuhan looks ever more prescient. Reviving reading might be an aspect of the electronic temperance’ movement I suggest.
A short piece by me on how electronic media, particularly television, consumed politics as a mass collective activity and helped to create the mess UK politics is in now. I argue that whatever your beliefs, the need is to revive politics as an activity. Link in the first reply.
There’s an interesting overlap or synergy between Hayek and much classical Chinese thought, especially Confucianism.
Many grains of truth here. Trump’s budget cuts should not serve as an excuse for avoiding serious reflection on where and why academia lost its way.
I went into academia to search for truth. I left learning how to write safe grants, avoid controversy, and serve bureaucrats.
السلام عليكم جميعاً! أحتاج مساعدتكم. اسمي غادة - باحثة سعودية في الأنثروبولوجيا البصرية، أعيش في برلين. أبحث عن صور فوتوغرافية قديمة التُقطت في أنحاء شبه الجزيرة العربية (دول الخليج، اليمن، العراق، الأردن). لا أقصد الصور الرسمية، بل تلك اليومية والعفوية؛ مشاهد من الشارع،…
Hello Internet! I need your help. I'm Ghada - a Saudi visual anthropologist based in Berlin. I’m trying to track down old photographs taken across the Arabian Peninsula (GCC, Yemen, Iraq, Jordan). Not official images, but those day-to-day ones; street scenes, people, homes,…