For their calculations, the two assumed that where there was a gap between demand and conventional supply it would be filled with synthetic fuels, first with tar-sands oil and later with oil from coal and shale. (According to high-end estimates, coal and oil shale could together yield some ten trillion barrels of unconventional crude.) They then calculated what the impact would be on global carbon-dioxide levels.

NEWYORKER: Unconventional Crude

By the way, for those who argue with that second point: when Census looks at the distributional impact of taxes it states that the burden of the corporate income tax is calculated to fall on those who own the corporate capital.

FORBES: Paul Krugman on the Buffett Tax

But Mr Borjas also calculated how a rise in the number of migrants might have encouraged the creation of jobs, which reduced the impact on wages.

ECONOMIST: Of bedsheets and bison grass vodka