A roundup of economic news from around the Web.
–Oil Production: Energy Information Administration notes a jump in oil production since 2010. “Onshore oil production, including crude oil and lease condensate, rose more than 2 million barrels per day (bbl/d), or 64%, in the Lower 48 states from February 2010 to February 2013, according to recent estimates in EIA’s Petroleum Supply Monthly. The production growth that began in 2010 has continued, and while Texas and North Dakota have received a lot of attention for their production increases (Texas more than doubled its production, while North Dakota’s output nearly tripled), there are other states where increases are noteworthy. Five western states in particular—Oklahoma, New Mexico, Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah—account for 15% of the increase. Production in each of these states increased between 23% and 64% over the same three years.”
–Spousal Earnings: Derek Thompson ask why more wives aren’t outearning their husbands. “”There simply aren’t nearly as many relationships with women out-earning men as we would expect [through random pairing],” Kamenica told me. “And women who should out-earn their husbands based on their education and other demographics are more likely to stay at home [and not work] than the similar women who don’t out-earn the husbands,” Kamenica said. But that’s not the most surprising finding from their research, he added. The most surprising thing was that wives who earn more from paid work also report doing significantly more chores around the house. This doesn’t make much sense, intuitively. For women and men at all income levels, more work in the office usually leads to less time spent doing chores at home. But suddenly, when a wife earns more than her husband, her hours spent on chores and childcare go up. “Classical economics can’t explain that increase,” Kamenica said. “The only way to make sense of it is compensatory behavior.” In English, please? “Maybe the husband feels threatened, so she does more of the cooking, even though she earns more.””
–Spending on Pets: Steve Henderson of the Labor Department examines data on how Americans spend on their pets. “From 2007 to 2011, spending on pets stayed close to 1 percent of total expenditures per household, despite the recession that occurred during this time. Spending on pet food stayed constant or increased during the recession, even while spending at restaurants fell. Married couples without children living at home spent the most on their pets out of any household configuration in 2011.”
Compiled by Phil Izzo