The National Bureau of Economic Research has released a new paper comparing learning by two groups of students at Northwestern University— those taking classes with tenured or tenure-track professors, and those taking classes from non-tenure-line faculty. As the abstract put it: "We find consistent evidence that students learn relatively more from non-tenure line professors in their introductory courses. These differences are present across a wide variety of subject areas, and are particularly pronounced for Northwestern's average students and less-qualified students."

One of the authors of the paper is the president of Northwestern, Morton Schapiro.

The paper says:

Among the many interesting statements in Mayor Bloomberg's interview with New York magazine is this: "The Financial Times is not for sale."

The wire service that Mayor Bloomberg owns reported on November 6, 2012, "Pearson Plc (PSON) is planning to explore a sale of the Financial Times newspaper as the company focuses on its faster-growing education business, people with knowledge of the situation said. The company has decided to consider offers for the newspaper this year, said the people, who declined to be identified because the process is private."

The wire service that Mayor Bloomberg owns followed up on November 15, 2012, with an article headlined "Pearson CFO Freestone Won't Rule Out Sale of Financial Times."

"Wealthy New Yorkers Call De Blasio's Tax Plan Offensive" is the headline over the Bloomberg News article that quotes Michael Steinhardt, E.E. "Buzzy" Geduld, and Peter Solomon opposing the plan of the leading Democratic mayoral candidate, Bill de Blasio, to increase the city's marginal income tax rate "on incomes above $500,000 to 4.4 percent from almost 3.9 percent." (That's on top of the state and federal income taxes).

George Soros supports the tax increase, the Bloomberg article notes. He lives in Westchester County and therefore the tax would not apply to him.

Good for the wealthy New Yorkers who are willing to stand up publicly against this.

The effect of ObamaCare on the labor market — specifically, a new paper from University of Chicago economist Casey Mulligan — is the topic of my column this week. Please check it out at the New York Sun (here), Newsmax (here), and Reason (here).

The Nobel laureate University of Chicago economist Ronald Coase has reportedly died. The Taking Hayek Seriously Twitter feed has an excellent collection of links, including to this EconTalk interview with Russ Roberts and this brief biography at the online Library of Economics and Liberty. From the latter link:

Coase also upset the apple cart in the realm of public goods. Economists often give the lighthouse as an example of a public good that only government can provide. They choose this example not based on any information they have about lighthouses, but rather on their a priori view that lighthouses could not be privately owned and operated at a profit. Coase showed, with a detailed look at history, that lighthouses in nineteenth-century Britain were privately provided and that ships were charged for their use when they came into port.

This chart tells the story (or at least part of it).

It's possible to put a good face on the declining labor force participation rate by considering it a positive development that Baby Boomers are enjoying their leisure time in retirement, or that parents are staying home with their children, or that young people are staying in school. But there are other ways of looking at it, too.

The Washington Post has a pretty good editorial criticizing the Obama administration for its attempt to block a school voucher program that would allow children to escape failing public schools in Louisiana. The Post calls the Obama administration's move "appalling":

Unfortunately, though, it is not a surprise from an administration that, despite its generally progressive views on school reform, has proven to be hostile — as witnessed by its petty machinations against D.C.'s voucher program — to the school choice afforded by private-school vouchers. ...Louisiana parents are clamoring for the choice afforded by this program; the state is insisting on accountability; poor students are benefiting. The federal government should get out of the way.

The Web site of Silverbrook Farm in Dartmouth, Mass. includes information about apprenticeships available at the 40-acre farm, established in 1690:

What you will learn: Apprentices will learn how to write local, state and federal grants for farm development and equipment....

I'm a customer of this farm and appreciate its eggs and vegetables. The Web site suggests the apprentices learn plenty of other farm-related skills, too. Still, it's a pretty striking departure from the image of the farmer as an independent self-sufficient pioneer living off the land, that the first item listed in the "what you will learn" section about farm apprenticeships is grantwriting skills for seeking aid from local, state, and federal governments. Applicants for the apprenticeship "MUST BE CAPABLE OF LIFTING 50 POUNDS!" It makes you wonder if that is the weight of the completed grant application after you print it out.

A Tampa, Florida limo driver and customers, represented by the non-profit libertarian law firm the Institute for Justice, are suing the Hillsborough County Public Transportation Commission to strike down a rule that requires a $50 minimum fare for limo and sedan drivers. The Institute for Justice press release is here, and a video explaining the case is embedded below.

Bill de Blasio, who a recent poll says is the leading candidate for the Democratic nomination for mayor of New York, tells the Nation magazine:

I think given what we've seen in the economic crisis of the past half-decade, the economic insecurity that people are feeling in this city and beyond, the driving down of wages and benefits, the answer is a higher level of unionization. I support the striking fast-food workers, for example, and I support the efforts of a number of unions to organize, and I think it's perfectly appropriate for a mayor to be front-and-center in those efforts.

The New York Times reports, meanwhile, that:

Texas A&M and the NCAA have reportedly suspended a college football player, Johnny Manziel, for half of the season opener as a punishment for signing too many autographs, even though they say there is no evidence he was paid for them.

So the school can make lots of money from selling football tickets, gear, and television rights, but if a student athlete goes anywhere near anyone who might make some money by selling autographs, the student athlete gets penalized. Seems like a hypocritical double standard to me, but maybe I am missing something.

Spotted at a farmer's market in Newton, Mass.:

The car directly in front of this one also had an Obama sticker and was also parked on the "No Parking" side.

If these people are so eager to get to the $5 locally grown cantaloupes that they don't want to wait for a legal spot, it wouldn't ordinarily bother me, except that I got a ticket a few weeks ago for parking my car (with New York plates and no Obama sticker) in the same place a few weeks earlier. I had not seen the sign. These guys, on the other hand, were getting away with it — a police officer was hovering nearby but not writing tickets.

Anyway, I'm not claiming that the Newton police are biased in favor of Obama, or that Obama supporters are more likely than anyone else to park illegally. The image did make me chuckle, however, which is part of what these Photos of the Day are intended to make you do.

That Tax Foundation map of income migration from state to state posted here yesterday has sparked some commentary. At The Torch, the blog of the Empire Center for New York State Policy, E.J. McMahon calls the infographic "nifty" but cautions that "the income migration data need to be taken with a big grain of salt. After all, very few taxpayers earn the same income two years in a row." The Tax Foundation itself put up a post reminding people, "we should repeat the caveat we also present with the data. There a lot of different reasons that motivate individuals to move from one state to another, from weather and schools to relationships and job opportunities. Taxes certainly aren't the only reason, but they do enter into the mix."

Megan McArdle has a post up at Bloomberg View trying to answer the question, "Why doesn't Walmart pay its workers higher wages like Costco?"

This is hardly an academic point; Ms. McArdle doesn't mention it, but President Obama himself, in a recent speech, said, "I'll be asking our businesses to set an example by providing decent wages and salaries to their own employees. And I'm going to highlight the ones that do just that. There are companies like Costco, which pays good wages and offers good benefits. ...These companies prove that it's not just good for the employees, it's good for their businesses to treat workers well. It's good for America."

The Tax Foundation has a pretty powerful infographic: a map showing the migration of personal incomes between the states from 2000 to 2010. Florida, Arizona, and Texas were big winners, while New York, California, and Illinois were big losers. If you think it's the climate rather than the taxes driving the migration, how do you explain California? (Or the growth in low-tax but chilly New Hampshire?)