Many progressives include in their critique of free-market capitalism the notion that employers have so much power over workers that they can set wages at subsistence levels. Workers, according to…
Sometimes, when trying to explain how a political issue is a thorny mess, I’ve used the phrase “public-choice problem.” Recent examples include such issues as occupational licensing, film incentives, government…
I have been an unrepentant mocker of that subset of academic research, usually funded with public monies, that purports to “find” the obvious. Some of those include such game-changers as men…
A new study by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) has reconfirmed the first premise of economic science–people respond to incentives. In this case, if you lengthen the time…
you believe that: … increasing the cost of smoking by raising cigarette taxes will reduce the amount of cigarettes that are purchased. …increasing the cost energy by implementing a carbon…
Perusing the work of his fellow pundits and prognosticators, James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal finds that liberal blogger Ezra Klein makes use of the “prisoner’s dilemma” argument in…
Here’s a philosophical article. Crime was down in Asheville during the snow storm. The reporter noted one factor was that public safety personnel were somewhat stranded and unable to issue…
Economists can tell us whether the actions we take and the policies we pursue are likely to maximize our economic benefits, but their analysis can miss key elements of human…
Musing 1: The price of liberty is eternal vigilance. Some of you may have noticed I did not blog last night. I could make the excuse that it was time…
George, Professor Caplan’s assessment will surprise no one who has read his book, The Myth of the Rational Voter.
In this excellent essay, Mike Munger argues that far from being the moral imperative that many people now treat it as, recycling is for the most part irrational since it…
I had an interesting experience today. I had planned to attend the NC State/West Virginia basketball game this afternoon with Shannon Blosser, meeting him at the game and purchasing an…