Catherine Rampell (@crampell )

Catherine Rampell

Bio Syndicated op-ed columnist @washingtonpost, commentator @cnn, special correspondent @newshour. Previously econ/theater NYT.
Econ, immigration, tax, politics etc
Tweets 70,5K
Followers 186,7K
Following 1,5K
Account created 10-04-2008 03:37:39
ID 14348157

Twitter Web App : New Biden economic hires point toward infrastructure, manufacturing emphasis reut.rs/3c2DhOO

Twitter Web App : A Jacksonville law requiring strip-club dancers to have police-issued identification is unconstitutional because it gives the Sheriff’s Office too much control over who can dance, a federal judge has decided. firstcoastnews.com/article/news/l… via First Coast News

Twitter Web App : Josh Barro Costs would be lower but I bet still difficult to get math to work out for an extended run. There's been a move toward smaller and smaller scale shows because the economics are already so hard. Probably still also need some min # of off-stage staff (stagehands, ushers, etc)

Twitter Web App : Now, maybe you can find 100 people willing to pay those prices for a few shows...but not really sustainable. Maybe you can get someone (landlord, cast, stagehand, etc.) to take a haircut. But would have to be a big haircut

Twitter Web App : To make as much as it had been making before, with audience capped at 100, average ticket price would have to be $1,161.46. Obviously that seems unlikely

Twitter Web App : So to break even, with a maximum audience of 100/show, tickets would have to cost $875.00 on average. Again, most recent average price (week of March 8, 2020) was $112, and top ticket sold for $477

Twitter Web App : I don't know what it costs to operate the show. Has a large cast. This Crain's article says that the first year the show opened (2011), expenses averaged $634,052 weekly. Presumably higher today. Let's conservatively say $700,000, or $87,500/performance crainsnewyork.com/assets/pdf/CN1…

Twitter Web App : Take a long-running show that already recouped its investment, Book of Mormon. The last week it was open, it grossed $929,168, with nearly every seat sold (98%). That's $116,146 per performance.
Average ticket price was $112.67; top ticket was $477.50. broadwayworld.com/grosses.cfm

Twitter Web App : Even if they're allowed to sell every seat in the house, at prices most people already can't afford ($60/ticket for the top row of the balcony), most B'way shows lose money. How on earth could they make the economics of this work? twitter.com/HESherman/stat…

Twitter Web App : WHO DOES THIS?

"The investigators also found that she repeatedly asked agency staff members to help do chores for her father, including editing her father’s Wikipedia page" twitter.com/EricLiptonNYT/…

Twitter Web App : .Penn Wharton Budget Model projects that doubling the number of vaccine doses administered daily would boost employment by more than 2 million and real GDP by about 1 percent over the summer of 2021, with smaller effects later in the year. budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu/issues/2021/3/…

Twitter Web App : This whole thing is super interesting. Especially struck by the polling on police/public safety issues by race/ethnicity nymag.com/intelligencer/…

Twitter Web App : If youre a theatre that can afford to produce while playing to a maximum of 33% of capacity, capped at no more than 100 people in total, please raise your hand. Anyone? Anyone? (This slide brought to you by Andrew Cuomo, Governor of NY)

Twitter Web App : Do you love data, taxes, and research? And do you have serious experience in same? Apply to be the Chief Data and Analytics Officer at IRS.
usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDet…

Twitter Web App : "no economist disagrees on this issue" is a strange claim to make about a hot-button issue that's the subject of high-profile and sometimes vicious disagreement -- here on #econtwitter, in academic journals, and in IRL
Next you will tell me there's no disagreement on R vs Stata!

Twitter Web App : As I wrote, I'm inclined to think disemployment effects will be small, given gradual phase-in of this design. But silly to pretend there's zero risk here, or that economists know for certain what'll happen - given both mixed literature & very weird econ conditions we face today

Twitter Web App : This lit-review is from January.
economics.uci.edu/~dneumark/MW%2…
It includes a list of dozens of min wage papers published in the past decade, including some that find negative employment effects. You may not agree with them - but they definitely exist! twitter.com/Econ_Marshall/…