Entries by Andrew Cline

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New Hampshire again rated most economically free state, but the gap is closing

New Hampshire has once again retained its status as the most economically-free state in North America in this year’s Economic Freedom in North America report published by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think tank. In both the continental and in-country rankings, New Hampshire finished first. Within the United States, Tennessee leapt […]

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Of course parents have a role in public education

On September 28, Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe said in a debate, “I’m not going to let parents come into schools and actually take books out and make their own decision. I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” Before that debate, McAuliffe had led Republican opponent Glenn Youngkin in every […]

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Is college worth it? Usually, but not always, new study finds

A college degree is a major investment in a better economic future, high school students are constantly told. But that isn’t always true. More than a quarter of college majors produce a negative return on investment, according to a study by Preston Cooper at the Foundation for Research on Economic Opportunity.  A lot of studies […]

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An anti-mining law in Maine shows the folly of outlawing tradeoffs

Our era of extreme political polarization fuels contempt for anything labeled “compromise.” Neither side wants to give an inch to the other, on any issue, even though everyone compromises every day in countless ways.  The economic term for compromise is “tradeoff.” In real life, no one is 100% ideologically pure. We make tradeoffs a gazillion […]

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Land use regulation event video now available

On Oct 12, 2021, the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy and the Center for Ethics in Society at St. Anselm College released a first-of-its-kind study on how local land use regulations affect the supply and price of housing in New Hampshire. The event included a panel discussion on housing regulation with Sarah Marchant of […]

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N.H. should let the market sort out private-sector vaccine policies

When New Hampshire Republicans start asking the state to regulate private businesses, something’s stopped making sense. GOP Executive Councilors Joe Kenney and Dave Wheeler last week suggested the state should forbid private businesses from requiring employees to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Florida and Texas have passed such big-government dictates, and Montana adopted a similar one in […]

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N.H.’s Top Ten most housing-restricted municipalities

The Josiah Bartlett Center’s new study of local residential land use regulations provides a first-ever ranking of N.H. municipalities’ local housing restrictions. The study ranks N.H. municipalities by the inelasticity of their housing supply, that is, by how much local conditions, especially land-use regulations, restrict the ability of the private sector to provide new housing […]

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Local land use regulations drive N.H. housing shortage, Bartlett study shows

Why have house prices and rents increased so much in New Hampshire? A new Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy study finds that residential land use regulations, mostly at the local level, are a major cause. Examples of local regulations that prevent people from building homes include: minimum lot sizes, frontages and setbacks, single-family-only requirements, […]

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Claira Monier’s housing wisdom

In a few weeks, the Business and Industry Association will present its Lifetime Achievement Award to the imminently deserving Claira Monier, director of the New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority from 1988-2007. With New Hampshire housing prices setting new records every month, the timing couldn’t be better. Had local elected officials listened to Monier over the […]