Daniel Klein se hace eco en el Wall Street Journal de un reciente estudio en Econ Journal Watch sobre los conocimientos económicos de los distintos segmentos ideológicos: Economic Enlightenment in Relation to College-going, Ideology, and Other Variables: A Zogby Survey of Americans. Los que puntúan mejor: los más conservadores (en el sentido anglosajón) y los liberales. Los que puntúan peor: los progresistas/izquierdistas.
Other questions were: 1) Mandatory licensing of professional services increases the prices of those services (unenlightened answer: disagree). 2) Overall, the standard of living is higher today than it was 30 years ago (unenlightened answer: disagree). 3) Rent control leads to housing shortages (unenlightened answer: disagree). 4) A company with the largest market share is a monopoly (unenlightened answer: agree). 5) Third World workers working for American companies overseas are being exploited (unenlightened answer: agree). 6) Free trade leads to unemployment (unenlightened answer: agree). 7) Minimum wage laws raise unemployment (unenlightened answer: disagree).
How did the six ideological groups do overall? Here they are, best to worst, with an average number of incorrect responses from 0 to 8: Very conservative, 1.30; Libertarian, 1.38; Conservative, 1.67; Moderate, 3.67; Liberal, 4.69; Progressive/very liberal, 5.2
Como apunta Klein, además, no todas las preguntas atacaban las sensibilidades de la izquierda.
Still, not all of the eight questions are tied directly to left-wing concerns about inequality and redistribution. In particular, the questions about mandatory licensing, the standard of living, the definition of monopoly, and free trade do not specifically challenge leftist sensibilities.
(HT: Paco Capella)
