The Economics Detective: Recent Episodes
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Learning a new skill is hard. Part of what’s so hard about it is, by definition, you don’t know the skill and so you also don’t know the best way to go about learning it. So you rely on people who do know that skill to guide you through the process. Maybe you’re a child, … Continue reading Good and bad ways to learn →
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Since I started working in crypto, I’ve had a lot of questions from friends and family about how (and whether) to invest in crypto. If you simply Google “how to buy crypto” you’ll get a lot of results that don’t apply to Canadians. A lot of these guides start with “Step 1) make an account … Continue reading The Canadian Guide to Crypto Investing →
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I’ve spent most of my life in school. Mostly as a student but occasionally as a TA or prof. Since finishing my PhD this year and striking out into the private sector, I’ve done a little work to beef up my technical skills. I went on one of those learn-to-code websites to practice writing SQL … Continue reading What learn-to-code websites can teach us about the future of education →
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Michael Heller joins the podcast to discuss his new book, Mine! How the Hidden Rules of Ownership Control Our Lives. This book explores the implicit social rules governing ownership. In brief, these rules are as follows: Attachment (“it’s mine because it’s connected to something of mine”) Possession (“it’s mine because I physically control it”) First-in-time … Continue reading The Hidden Rules of Ownership with Michael Heller →
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On today’s episode, I discuss Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations with Sarah Skwire. Sarah is part of the team tweeting through the book @AdamSmithWorks. We discuss the project and talk through the first few chapters of the Wealth of Nations. Download this episode. Subscribe to Economics Detective Radio on iTunes, Android, or Stitcher.
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My wife and I are having a baby. He is due in a little over a month. So before we start this journey, I’d like to write down some of my thoughts, beliefs, and opinions about parenting. Since I’m not yet a parent, these thoughts are primarily influenced by books, intuition, and my observations of … Continue reading Thoughts on Parenting (Before Becoming a Parent) →
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In personal news, I’ve been brought on as the chief economist for Abio, a software as a service company specializing in enterprise software for Canadian construction firms. The company is technically decades old, but it’s in a process of transition that makes it feel much more like a startup. The most fun thing I’ve done … Continue reading Developing a new SaaS pricing model →
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Today’s guest is Michael McCullough of the University of California, San Diego. We are discussing his book The Kindness of Strangers: How a Selfish Ape Invented a New Moral Code. How did humans, a species of self-centered apes, come to care about others? Since Darwin, scientists have tried to answer this question using evolutionary theory. … Continue reading The Kindness of Strangers with Michael McCullough →
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Today’s guest is Nina Roussille of UC Berkeley and we discuss her working paper, The central role of the ask gap in gender pay inequality. The gender ask gap measures the extent to which women ask for lower salaries than comparable men. This paper studies the role of the ask gap in generating wage inequality … Continue reading The Gender Salary Ask Gap with Nina Roussille →
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Anton Howes returns to the podcast to discuss his new book, Arts and Minds: How the Royal Society of Arts Changed a Nation. From its beginnings in a coffee house in the mid-eighteenth century, the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce has tried to improve British life in every way imaginable. It … Continue reading Arts and Minds with Anton Howes →
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Today’s guest is Stuart Ritchie, psychologist and author of Science Fictions: How Fraud, Bias, Negligence, and Hype Undermine the Search for Truth. Science is how we understand the world. Yet failures in peer review and mistakes in statistics have rendered a shocking number of scientific studies useless – or, worse, badly misleading. Such errors have … Continue reading Science Fictions with Stuart Ritchie →
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Today’s guests are Sylvain Catherine and Natasha Sarin of the University of Pennsylvania. They discuss their research on wealth inequality, specifically with respect to social security’s impact on calculated wealth inequality. When you account for the value of all future payroll taxes into Social Security and all future benefit payments from Social Security, the present … Continue reading Social Security and Wealth Inequality with Sylvain Catherine and Natasha Sarin →
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Today’s episode features my conversation with Mark Blyth, co-author (with Eric Lonergan) of Angrynomics. Why are measures of stress and anxiety on the rise when economists and politicians tell us we have never had it so good? While statistics tell us that the vast majority of people are getting steadily richer, the world most of … Continue reading Angrynomics with Mark Blyth →
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Ilya Somin of George Mason University joins the podcast to discuss his book Free to Move: Foot Voting, Migration, and Political Freedom. Ballot box voting is often considered the essence of political freedom. But, it has two major shortcomings: individual voters have little chance of making a difference, and they also face strong incentives to … Continue reading Free to Move with Ilya Somin →
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Historian Kyle Harper joins the show to discuss his book The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire. We discuss the fall of the Roman empire and the new scientific discoveries that have shed more light on its nature and causes. Kyle’s work looks at the epidemics and climatic changes that … Continue reading Climate, Disease, and the Fall of Rome with Kyle Harper →
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Today’s guest is Scott Beyer, a columnist who writes about urban issues. He is the creator of the Market Urbanism Report. Our discussion addresses some common concerns about housing markets. For instance, why do new luxury homes sometimes sit empty? What’s the deal with Houston’s land-use laws? And what can we do about the urban … Continue reading Market Urbanism with Scott Beyer →
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Today’s guest is Robert H. Frank of Cornell University. Our topic is his latest book, Under the Influence: Putting Peer Pressure to Work. Psychologists have long understood that social environments profoundly shape our behavior, sometimes for the better, often for the worse. But social influence is a two-way street—our environments are themselves products of our … Continue reading Under the Influence with Robert H. Frank →
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Garett Jones returns to the podcast to discuss his book, 10% Less Democracy: Why You Should Trust Elites a Little More and the Masses a Little Less. During the 2016 presidential election, both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders argued that elites were hurting the economy. But, drawing together evidence and theory from across economics, political … Continue reading Ten Percent Less Democracy with Garett Jones →
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Today’s guest is Simon Bowmaker. The topic is his book, When the President Calls: Conversations with Economic Policymakers. The book features 35 interviews with economists who worked for the President of the United States. What is it like to sit in the Oval Office and discuss policy with the president? To know that the decisions … Continue reading The President’s Economic Advisers with Simon Bowmaker →
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Today, Josh Hendrickson joins the show to discuss his paper, “U.S. Maritime Policy and Economic Efficiency.” The paper discusses the controversial Jones Act, and how it (and similar policies) were designed to maintain a sovereign merchant marine for use in times of war. Te abstract reads as follows: Critics argue that maritime policy is protectionist … Continue reading Maritime Policy and the Merchant Marine with Josh Hendrickson →
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Today’s episode features Gilles Duranton and Diego Puga on their new working paper, “Urban Growth and its Aggregate Implications.” This paper builds a detailed theoretical model that includes urbanization, agglomeration economies, inter-city migration, congestion externalities, and land-use restrictions. We develop an urban growth model where human capital spillovers foster entrepreneurship and learning in heterogeneous cities. … Continue reading Cities and Growth with Gilles Duranton and Diego Puga →
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Today’s guest is Leah Boustan of Princeton University. Our discussion centers around her recent working paper, “The Effects of Immigration on the Economy: Lessons from the 1920s Border Closure.” In the 1920s, the United States substantially reduced immigrant entry by imposing country-specific quotas. We compare local labor markets with more or less exposure to the … Continue reading The Age of Mass Migration and the 1920 Border Closure with Leah Boustan →
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Today on Economics Detective Radio, I discuss health economics with Hannes Schwandt of Northwestern University. Hannes is the co-author, along with Diane Alexander, of “The Impact of Car Pollution on Infant and Child Health: Evidence from Emissions Cheating.” Car exhaust is a major source of air pollution, but little is known about its impacts on … Continue reading Emissions Cheating, Air Pollution, and Health with Hannes Schwandt →
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Bryan Caplan and Zach Weinersmith both return to the podcast to discuss their new, non-fiction graphic novel, Open Borders: The Science and Ethics of Immigration. American policy-makers have long been locked in a heated battle over whether, how many, and what kind of immigrants to allow to live and work in the country. Those in … Continue reading Open Borders with Bryan Caplan and Zach Weinersmith →
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Today’s guest is Jeffrey Rogers Hummel of San Jose State University. He is the author of Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men: A History of the American Civil War. This book combines a sweeping narrative of the Civil War with a bold new look at the war’s significance for American society. Professor Hummel sees the Civil … Continue reading The American Civil War with Jeffrey Hummel →
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Today’s guests are economic historians Alan Olmstead and Paul Rhode. Both of them have research related to the slave economy of the Antebellum South. Our main topic is a paper they co-authored, Cotton, slavery, and the new history of capitalism. The “New History of Capitalism” grounds the rise of industrial capitalism on the production of … Continue reading Cotton, Slavery, and the New History of Capitalism with Alan Olmstead and Paul Rhode →
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Phil Magness returns to the show to discuss his work on slavery and capitalism, particularly as it relates to the New History of Capitalism (NHC) and the New York Times’ 1619 project. Phil recently wrote an article entitled, “How the 1619 Project Rehabilitates the ‘King Cotton’ Thesis.” In it, he argues that the NHC has … Continue reading Slavery and Capitalism with Phil Magness →
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Today’s guest is Thomas Hazlett, former chief economist of the FCC and author of The Political Spectrum: The Tumultuous Liberation of Wireless Technology, from Herbert Hoover to the Smartphone. Perceptive listeners may recall that Ed Lopez mentioned Hazlett’s work in our interview on political change. Hazlett’s work concerns the legal institutions surrounding the radio spectrum. … Continue reading Radio Spectrum and Property Rights with Thomas Hazlett →
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Today’s guest is Robert Wright, author of The Poverty of Slavery. The New York Times’ 1619 Project has prompted renewed discussions on slavery and the New History of Capitalism literature. This episode is the first in a series addressing these topics. We discuss the prevalence of slavery in the developing world today, the arguments for … Continue reading The Poverty of Slavery with Robert Wright →
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Have you ever been in a policy discussion and had a conservative bring up the fact that Nazis were socialists? “‘National Socialism,’ it’s right there in the name!” This is, at its heart, an attempt to poison the well against the concept of socialism. Since “socialism” has come to encompass everything from full public ownership … Continue reading Against Moral Stains →
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Today’s guest is Alain Bertaud, author of Order Without Design: How Markets Shape Cities. Alain discusses his extensive experience in urban planning: When he was first trained as a planner, urban planning was thought of as an offshoot of architecture. In this conception, cities are just large buildings that need to be laid out and … Continue reading Cities, Markets, and Urban Planning with Alain Bertaud →
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Ben Powell joins the podcast today to discuss his new book, Socialism Sucks: Two Economists Drink Their Way Through the Unfree World, coauthored with Robert Lawson. The book is a combination of economic analysis and Anthony-Bourdain-style travel diary. Do We Have to Say It Again? Socialism Sucks! Apparently we do. Because today millions of Americans—young … Continue reading Drinking Through the Unfree World with Ben Powell →
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Today’s guest is Edward J. Lopez of Western Carolina University. We discuss his book, Madmen, Intellectuals, and Academic Scribblers: The Economic Engine of Political Change, which was co-authored with Wayne Leighton. Does major political reform require a crisis? When do new ideas emerge in politics? How can one person make a difference? In short: how … Continue reading Political Change with Ed Lopez →
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Vincent Geloso returns to the podcast today to discuss his paper, “Markets for Rebellions? The Rebellions of 1837-38 in Lower Canada”. The paper discusses the idea that political upheaval and even violent rebellion can be more likely in areas with a high degree of market access. In 1837-38, the British colonies of Upper and Lower … Continue reading Markets for Rebellion with Vincent Geloso →
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Tooday’s guest is Jennifer Murtazashvili of the University of Pittsburgh. We discuss her book, Informal Order and the State in Afghanistan. Despite vast efforts to build the state, profound political order in rural Afghanistan is maintained by self-governing, customary organizations. Informal Order and the State in Afghanistan explores the rules governing these organizations to explain … Continue reading Informal Order and the State in Afghanistan with Jennifer Murtazashvili →
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Today’s guest is Randall Holcombe of Florida State University. Our discussion today focuses on his book, Political Capitalism: How Economic and Political Power Is Made and Maintained. Problems associated with cronyism, corporatism, and policies that favor the elite over the masses have received increasing attention in recent years. Political Capitalism explains that what people often … Continue reading Political Capitalism with Randall Holcombe →
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Today’s guest is Arvind Panagariya of Columbia University. We discuss his book, Free Trade and Prosperity: How Openness Helps Developing Countries Grow Richer and Combat Poverty. Free Trade and Prosperity offers the first full-scale defense of pro-free-trade policies with developing countries at its center. Arvind Panagariya, a professor at Columbia University and former top economic … Continue reading Free Trade and Prosperity with Arvind Panagariya →
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Today’s guest is Robert Krol of California State University. Our topic is a recent policy paper he wrote for The Center for Growth and Opportunity at Utah State University entitled Can we Build our way out of Urban Traffic Congestion? This paper examines the impact of highway expansion on congestion. Because highway expansion lowers travel … Continue reading Highway Expansions, Tolls, and Congestion with Robert Krol →
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Today’s guest is Vlad Tarko of Dickinson College. We discuss the life and work of Elinor Ostrom, the 2009 winner of the Nobel Prize in economics. Vlad is the author of Elinor Ostrom: An intellectual biography. We discuss Elinor Ostrom’s work on polycentric governance, the management of common-pool resources, and policing. We also discuss the … Continue reading Elinor Ostrom, Polycentric Governance, and Policing with Vlad Tarko →
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My guest today is Matthew Curtis, founder of the startup Vice Lotteries. Vice Lotteries is a new startup that aims to challenge state governments’ legal monopolies over lotteries. State lotteries are amazingly and bizarrely unethical. They drain billions of dollars out of communities, primarily poor ones. Lottery spending has increased substantially over the past decades, … Continue reading Challenging the State Lottery System with Matthew Curtis →
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Today’s guest is Jamin Speer of the University of Memphis. We discuss his paper, “Are Changes of Major Major Changes? The Roles of Grades, Gender, and Preferences in College Major Switching” co-authored with Carmen Astorne-Figari. The choice of college major is a key stage in the career search, and over a third of college students … Continue reading Why Students Switch Majors with Jamin Speer →
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Kevin Erdmann of the Mercatus Center returns to the podcast to discuss his new book, Shut Out: How a Housing Shortage Caused the Great Recession and Crippled Our Economy. From the publisher’s website: The United States suffers from a shortage of well-placed homes. This was true even at the peak of the housing boom in … Continue reading Re-thinking the so-called Housing Bubble with Kevin Erdmann →
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Today’s guest on Economics Detective Radio is Anja Shortland of King’s College London, discussing her new book Kidnap: Inside the Ransom Business, where she brings an economist’s perspective to the shady world of the kidnapping for ransom business and to the professionals who specialize in getting hostages home safely. The book’s description reads as follows: … Continue reading Kidnapping for Ransom with Anja Shortland →
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Mark Thornton returns to the podcast to discuss his new book The Skyscraper Curse (available digitally for free). The book discusses the connection between record-setting skyscrapers and economic recessions. Here’s an excerpt from the book’s introduction: The Skyscraper Index expresses the strange relationship between the building of the world’s tallest skyscraper and the onset of … Continue reading The Skyscraper Curse and Business Cycles with Mark Thornton →
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Today’s guest is Louis Rouanet from George Mason University. Our discussion focuses on an economic history paper he co-authored with Ennio Piano (a previous guest of the show), “Filling the Ranks: The Remplacement Militaire in Post-Revolutionary France.” Many economists have analyzed the efficiency of a volunteered army relative to a conscripted army. However, they have … Continue reading Military History and the Remplacement Militaire with Louis Rouanet →
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Today’s guest is economic historian Gregory Clark, and our topic is England’s New Poor Law of 1834. Gregory and his co-author, Marianne E. Page, wrote a paper on the topic entitled “Welfare reform, 1834: Did the New Poor Law in England produce significant economic gains?” Spoiler alert: It didn’t. The English Old Poor Law, which … Continue reading Classical Economics and the New Poor Law with Gregory Clark →
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Today’s guest is Mikayla Novak (Twitter, SSRN) of the RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub at RMIT University. Her work focuses on some innovative new and potential uses for blockchain technology. As we all know at this point, the first use of blockchain technology was to create decentralized digital currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. But a blockchain … Continue reading Institutional Cryptoeconomics with Mikayla Novak →
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[Note: I was not compensated for this post.] I’ve had my ReMarkable tablet for over a year now and I can’t imagine life without it. I am constantly carrying it with me, pulling it out to jot down notes during meetings, or to read PDFs on the SkyTrain, or to sketch out ideas for one … Continue reading Why my ReMarkable Tablet is my Favourite Device →
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Today’s guest is Martin Gurri (Twitter, blog), author of The Revolt of the Public. We discuss his book, which deals with the impact of information technology on political trends and populism. In the words of economist and scholar Arnold Kling, “Martin Gurri saw it coming.” Technology has categorically reversed the information balance of power between … Continue reading The Revolt of the Public with Martin Gurri →
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Today on the podcast, Ash Navabi returns to discuss his recent work on housing and rent control. Ash published an opinion piece entitled “Why low-income earners should actually welcome Ontario’s reversal on rent control.” In that article, Ash pushes back on the kneejerk reaction to the Ontario government’s reversal of its rent control policy on … Continue reading Rent Control and the Housing Debate with Ash Navabi →
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Today’s guest is Jonathan Meer of Texas A&M. We discuss his work on the minimum wage. The voluminous literature on minimum wages offers little consensus on the extent to which a wage floor impacts employment. For both theoretical and econometric reasons, we argue that the effect of the minimum wage should be more apparent in … Continue reading The Minimum Wage and Labour Market Dynamics with Jonathan Meer →
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Today’s guest is Bryan Cutsinger of George Mason University, discussing his paper, “Seigniorage in the Civil War South.” During the U.S. Civil War, the Confederate Congress adopted three currency reforms that were intended to reduce the quantity of Treasury notes in circulation by inducing the money-holding public to exchange their notes for long-term bonds. In … Continue reading Seigniorage in the Civil War South with Bryan Cutsinger →
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Today’s guest is Bob Murphy of Texas Tech University. We discuss his work on climate change and the social cost of carbon. Bob started working on issues related to climate change when he began working with the Institute for Energy Research. We discuss the implications of the Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) used to evaluate the … Continue reading Climate Change, Carbon Taxes, and Geo-Engineering with Bob Murphy →
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Today I discuss one of my own papers: “Instructions” by Freeman, Kimbrough, Petersen, and Tong. This research project on experimental instructions has been ongoing for years, but it was recently conditionally accepted for publication. I tell the story of how the research came together and detail some of the results. A survey of instruction delivery … Continue reading Experimental Economics and the Importance of Instructions →
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Today’s guest is Viktor Vanberg of the Walter Eucken Institute. We discuss a recent working paper of his entitled Individual Choice and Social Welfare: Theoretical Foundations of Political Economy. What we call an economy, i.e. the nexus of economic activities and relations within some defined regional limits – e.g. a local, a national or the … Continue reading Individual Choice and Social Welfare with Viktor Vanberg →
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Today’s guest is Peter Boettke of George Mason University and we’re discussing his recent book in the Great Thinkers in Economics series: F. A. Hayek: Economics, Political Economy and Social Philosophy. This book explores the life and work of Austrian-British economist, political economist, and social philosopher, Friedrich Hayek. Set within a context of the recent … Continue reading Why Hayek Matters with Pete Boettke →
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Corey A. DeAngelis of the Cato Institute joins the podcast to discuss his review of the school choice research. Is public schooling a public good, a merit good, or a demerit good? Public schooling fails both conditions specified in the standard economic definition of a public good. In order to place public schooling into one … Continue reading The Empirical Case for School Choice with Corey A. DeAngelis →
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My guest today, Mario Macis of Johns Hopkins University, has done a number of interesting studies related to blood and organ donation, particularly the compensation of blood and organ donors. For instance, Mario and his coauthor, Nicola Lacetera, observed the effect of an incentive system that offered symbolic rewards to blood donors in a particular … Continue reading Compensating Blood and Organ Donors with Mario Macis →
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Here on Economics Detective Radio, we’ve had many discussions about the early modern period, and the circumstances that gave rise to the modern levels of sustained economic growth that were heretofore unheard of in human history. One important question is, what was it about England and the Low Countries in the early modern period that … Continue reading Why No Ancient Greek Industrial Revolution? A Conversation with George Tridimas →
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My guest today is Roman Yampolskiy, computer scientist and AI safety researcher. He is the author of multiple books, including Artificial Superintelligence: A Futuristic Approach. He is also the editor of the forthcoming volume Artificial Intelligence Safety and Security, featuring contributions from many leading AI safety researchers. We discuss the nature of AI risk, the … Continue reading Artificial Intelligence, Risk, and Alignment with Roman Yampolskiy →
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Could cultural attitudes about gender reflect economic conditions hundreds of years ago? My guest today says they do! Melanie Meng Xue of Northwestern University has shown that China’s cotton revolution had far-reaching consequences extending even to the modern day: The cotton revolution (1300-1840 AD) in imperial China constituted a substantial shock to the value of … Continue reading How Economics Shapes Gender Norms with Melanie Meng Xue →
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Today’s episode of Economics Detective Radio features a conversation with Robert Poole of the Reason Foundation. Robert is the author of Rethinking America’s Highways: A 21st-Century Vision for Better Infrastructure, a book on how to fix America’s infrastructure woes by changing the way roadways are funded: Americans spend hours every day sitting in traffic. And … Continue reading All Roads Lead to Toll Roads: Robert Poole on America’s Highways →
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Today’s guest is Thibault Schrepel of the University of Utrecht. We discuss his work on the relationship between blockchain technology, which allows for the decentralization of firms and organizations, and anti-trust law. Here’s a quote from his article on the topic: But in the end, one question arises as follows: is blockchain the death of … Continue reading The Blockchain Anti-Trust Paradox with Thibault Schrepel →
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Fabio Rojas returns to the podcast to discuss his work researching social media. He has three main papers on the subject. The first is “More Tweets, More Votes: Social Media as a Quantitative Indicator of Political Behavior,” which shows how Twitter activity predicted the outcomes of the 2010 and 2012 US congressional elections. The second … Continue reading Social Media, Elections, and Gender with Fabio Rojas →
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Today’s episode features Zachary Greenberg of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. We discuss freedom of speech, FIRE’s work to protect it on college campuses, and its importance for maintaining a liberal society. Download this episode. Subscribe to Economics Detective Radio on iTunes, Android, or Stitcher.
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Phil Magness returns to the podcast to discuss the life and work of James Buchanan and to defend him against some of the more bizarre criticisms levied against him. James Buchanan was a Chicago-school economist who created the field of public choice economics along with Gordon Tullock. He was awarded the Nobel prize in 1986. … Continue reading Buchanan, Segregation, and Democracy in Chains with Phil Magness →
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This week’s episode is a little different. There’s an ongoing controversy related to a two–time guest of this show, Robin Hanson. I talk through the scandal, giving a whole decade of background so you can understand where this scandal comes from. There are many links for this episode. Here they are in the order they … Continue reading We Didn’t Start the Flame War →
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Andrea Matranga of the New Economics School in Moscow joins the podcast with a fascinating question: Why did humans adopt agriculture in the times and places they did? His research paper, The Ant and the Grasshopper: Seasonality and the Invention of Agriculture, offers a potential solution. Here’s the abstract: During the Neolithic Revolution, seven populations … Continue reading The Neolithic Revolution with Andrea Matranga →
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My guest today is Ryan Muldoon of the University at Buffalo. He is the author of Social Contract Theory for a Diverse World: Beyond Tolerance. We discuss the role of perspective diversity in political philosophy, with reference to both Ryan’s book and his article, Diversity and Disagreement are the Solution, Not the Problem. We relate … Continue reading Diversity and the Social Contract with Ryan Muldoon →
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The assiduous Vincent Geloso returns to the podcast to discuss his work with Rosolino Candela on lightships and their importance in economics. The abstract of their paper reads as follows: What role does government play in the provision of public goods? Economists have used the lighthouse as an empirical example to illustrate the extent to … Continue reading Lightships and Public Goods with Vincent Geloso →
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My guest for this episode of Economics Detective Radio is Bart Wilson of Chapman University. He is the author of many experimental economics studies. Our conversation today focuses on one particular study entitled Language and cooperation in hominin scavenging. The abstract reads as follows: Bickerton (2009, 2014) hypothesizes that language emerged as the solution to … Continue reading Experimental Economics and the Origin of Language with Bart Wilson →
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My guests for this episode are Alex Nowrasteh and Andrew Forrester of the Cato Institute. Our topic is a working paper they recently published titled How Mass Immigration Affects Countries with Weak Economic Institutions: A Natural Experiment in Jordan. The abstract reads as follows: Saddam Hussein’s unexpected 1990 invasion of Kuwait forced 300, 000 Kuwaitis … Continue reading Refugee Waves, Mass Immigration, and Jordan with Alex Nowrasteh and Andrew Forrester →
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Phil Magness returns to the podcast to discuss the public choice economics of universities. We discuss the internal politics of universities, their rising reliance on adjunct scholars to teach courses, the increasing numbers of administrators staffing universities, and the trends in faculty employment across disciplines. Download this episode. Subscribe to Economics Detective Radio on … Continue reading Universities, Adjuncts, and Public Choice with Phil Magness →
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Today’s guest is Jeremy Horpedahl of the University of Central Arkansas. Jeremy’s work builds on a famous theory from Bruce Yandle’s 1983 article ” Bootleggers and Baptists-The Education of a Regulatory Economist.” The article explored the idea that laws are often passed or defended by coalitions of economic interests (bootleggers) and moral crusaders (Baptists). Though … Continue reading Prohibition, Arkansas, and Bootleggers and Baptists with Jeremy Horpedahl →
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My guest for this episode is Bryan Caplan of George Mason University. We discuss his latest book, The Case Against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money, in which he argues that the social value of education is negative. This may seem paradoxical given that more educated individuals tend to … Continue reading The Case Against Education with Bryan Caplan →
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Today’s guest is Russ Roberts, host of the quintessential economics podcast EconTalk. (If you haven’t heard EconTalk, go subscribe to it right now, because it is excellent!) We discuss EconTalk’s role in the economics profession, the things Russ has learned in the course of making it, the importance of intellectual honesty, and the enduring insights … Continue reading EconTalk, Intellectual Honesty, and Adam Smith with Russ Roberts →
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Algorithms, Algorithmic Discrimination, and Autonomous Vehicles with Caleb Watney Today’s guest is Caleb Watney of the R Street Institute. In our conversation, we discuss algorithms, particularly with respect to their role in judicial decision making. Later in the conversation, we discuss the algorithms that will one day replace ape brains as the primary controllers of … Continue reading Algorithms, Algorithmic Discrimination, and Autonomous Vehicles with Caleb Watney →
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Sam Hammond returns to the podcast today to discuss the free market welfare state. He and Will Wilkinson have both written articles in this area recently, and we discuss some of the concepts they bring up. People tend to think of government functions on a one-dimensional spectrum with “big government” on one end and “small … Continue reading The Welfare State, Markets, and Social Insurance with Sam Hammond →
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My guest for this episode is Scott Cunningham of Baylor University. We discuss his work on the decriminalization of indoor sex work and on the impact of Craigslist’s erotic services page on violence against women. The working paper on Craigslist generated a lot of media attention, with articles at Huffington Post and ThinkProgress. The most … Continue reading Sex Work, Craigslist, and Decriminalization with Scott Cunningham →
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My guest today is Lyman Stone. He is an agriculture economist for the USDA, but our topic for this episode is his popular writing about migration. He blogs at In a State of Migration on Medium and co-hosts the podcast Migration Nation. We discuss the history of migration restrictions in the United States, the economic … Continue reading Migration and Fertility with Lyman Stone →
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This episode of the podcast features two guests, Zach and Kelly Weinersmith. Zach is the author of SMBC Comics, a popular webcomic that sometimes deals with advanced concepts in science, philosophy, economics, and other fields. Kelly is a professor in the Biosciences department of Rice University. Together they co-authored Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That’ll Improve … Continue reading Emerging Technologies with Zach and Kelly Weinersmith →
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My guest on this episode is Shruti Rajagopalan of the State University of New York’s Purchase College. We discuss Shruti’s work on constitutional political economy as it relates to India. We start by talking about the Indian constitution. India got its independence in 1947 and ratified a constitution shortly after in 1949. Interestingly, it is … Continue reading Indian Constitutional Political Economy and the Bhopal Gas Tragedy with Shruti Rajagopalan →
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Robin Hanson returns to the podcast to discuss his new book, The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday Life, co-authored with Kevin Simler. As the subtitle suggests, the book looks at humans’ hidden motives. Robin argues that these hidden motives are much more prevalent than our conscious minds assume. We are not conscious … Continue reading The Elephant in the Brain, Hidden Motives, and Self-Deception with Robin Hanson →
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My guest for this episode is Ennio Piano of George Mason University. Our topic is Ennio’s work on the economics of biker gangs. Ennio has two papers on this subject. The first, published in Public Choice, is entitled Free riders: the economics and organization of outlaw motorcycle gangs and it describes the franchise-style model of … Continue reading Biker Gangs, Organized Crime, and Club Goods with Ennio Piano →
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My guest today is Jake Meyer of California State University, Long Beach. We discuss Jake’s work on the intersection of financial crises and politics. Jake’s work explores important questions such as the interaction between interest group politics and financial and currency crises. A country’s monetary authority needs to manage both the domestic labour market and … Continue reading Financial Crises, Politics, and Interest Groups with Jake Meyer →
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Today’s guest is Kyle Coates and our topic is pro wrestling and the intellectual property problems that arise from it. So prepare to be amazed as we BODY SLAM this topic, or something. Who owns a wrestler’s name, gimmick, and persona? Kyle was inspired to do research in this area when he heard about a … Continue reading Pro Wrestling and Intellectual Property with Kyle Coates →
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Today’s guest is David Friedman of Santa Clara University. Our discussion centers around his upcoming book, Legal Systems Very Different From Ours, which you can read in draft form at his website. David became interested in this topic when he became interested in the decentralized legal system of saga-period Iceland. This interest has since expanded … Continue reading Legal Systems Very Different From Ours with David Friedman →
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My guest today is Frank Milne of Queen’s University. Our topic for today will be unintended consequences. Frank has written a paper directed at policymakers to help them understand some of the pitfalls that economists have identified. The paper is directed at Australian policymakers, so some of the examples are Australia specific, though they generalize … Continue reading Unintended Consequences and Systemically Important Real Sectors with Frank Milne →
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Today’s guest is Clifford Winston of the Brookings Institution. We discuss infrastructure, particularly roads and airports, and the incentives faced by their users. Bad incentives create congestion problems that can’t be solved by simply throwing more money into infrastructure; you need to fix the incentives! Clifford’s work on privatization shows how it could improve incentives … Continue reading Infrastructure, Privatization, and Autonomous Vehicles with Clifford Winston →
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Peter Leeson of George Mason University joins the podcast today to discuss his latest book, WTF?!: An Economic Tour of the Weird. We discuss the economic reasoning behind some of history’s strangest practices: ordeals that were used to determine innocence or guilt in medieval Europe, trials by battle that were used to settle land disputes … Continue reading The Economics of the Weird with Peter Leeson →
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My guest today is Jared Rubin of Chapman University. He is the author of Rulers, Religion, and Riches: Why the West Got Rich and the Middle East Did Not, which is our topic for today. The book deals with the question of why Western Europe became wealthier than the Middle East after centuries of being … Continue reading Religion, Political Power, and Economic Growth with Jared Rubin →
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My guest today is Kevin Leyton-Brown, he is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of British Columbia. Kevin’s work involves not only computer science topics such as artificial intelligence, but also game theory, and the intersection between the two. Our topic for today is an app that Kevin co-founded called Kudu, which uses … Continue reading Technology, Mechanism Design, and Ugandan Agricultural Markets with Kevin Leyton-Brown →
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Returning to the podcast is David Henderson of Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey California. Our topic for today is the German Economic Miracle. David wrote an article on it for the Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. The article begins as follows: “After World War II the German economy lay in … Continue reading The German Economic Miracle with David Henderson →
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My guest today is Jamie Pavlik of Texas Tech University. Jamie has done a ton of research on corruption and development. She has examined corruption in the developing world, with multiple papers examining corruption in Brazil. She has also looked at international comparisons of corruption, and corruption in the United States specifically. We discuss her … Continue reading Corruption and Spatial Econometrics with Jamie Pavlik →
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My guest today is Thomas Sampson of the London School of Economics. Our topic for today is the economic impact of Brexit. Long-time listeners will recall that I did an interview with Sam Bowman on Brexit immediately after the vote occurred. Think of this as a follow-up to that episode now that the dust has … Continue reading Brexit, Its Economic Impact, and International Disintegration with Thomas Sampson →
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My guest today is Karl Smith, he is the director of economic research at the Niskanen center. Our topic for today will be market power. Karl has written a series of posts on the Niskanen center blog discussing markups and market power. The debate was sparked by a paper by Loecker and Eeckhout that claimed … Continue reading Markups, Market Concentration, and Monopolistic Competition with Karl Smith →
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My guest today is Fabio Rojas. He is professor of sociology at Indiana University Bloomington. Fabio is the author of three books, the first is From Black Power to Black Studies: How a Radical Social Movement Became an Academic Discipline, published in 2007. The second book, coauthored with Michael Heaney, is Party in the Street: … Continue reading Sociology and Social Science with Fabio Rojas →
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My guest is Peter Jaworski of Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. He is the author, along with Jason Brennan, of Markets Without Limits. We recorded this on August 24th, 2017, the same day Peter published an op-ed in the National Post titled “Canada needs blood plasma. We should pay donors to get it.” The … Continue reading Compensating Blood, Fluid, and Organ Donors with Peter Jaworski →
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Samuel Hammond is returning to the podcast today to discuss the relationship between capitalism and social justice. Sam was prompted to write about this by an insensitive Pepsi commercial that caused some controversy in April 2017. The controversial ad featured generic protesters and Kendall Jenner sharing a Pepsi with police. While the ad was insensitive … Continue reading Pepsi, Niche Marketing, and Neoliberal Social Justice with Samuel Hammond →
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This episode’s guest is Vincent Geloso, here to talk about his work on Cuban healthcare statistics. He recently released a working paper with coauthor Gilbert Berdine titled “The Paradox of Good Health and Poverty: Assessing Cuban Health Outcomes under Castro.” The abstract reads as follows: In spite of being poor and lacking in economic opportunities, … Continue reading Cuban Healthcare with Vincent Geloso →
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Let’s consider a series of statements, without considering whether any of them are right or wrong: People should be treated with respect, regardless of their ethnicity. All ethnic groups have the same average IQ after controlling for cultural biases in IQ tests. Women should be treated with respect and accepted in traditionally male-dominated workplaces. There … Continue reading Can the Truth be Repugnant? Should it be? →
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Bloomberg reports that ABC Children’s Hospital has fired an employee who wrote an internal memo blasting the hospital’s diversity policies, creating a firestorm across the medical community. She said: “The distribution of preferences and abilities of women and men differ in part due to biological causes, and that these differences may explain why we don’t … Continue reading Pediatrician Fired Over Anti-Diversity Memo →
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My guest for this episode is Noel Johnson of George Mason University, and if that name sounds familiar, it’s because he was the coauthor on the paper I discussed with Mark Koyama last month. Noel recently released a working paper titled “The Effects of Land Redistribution: Evidence from the French Revolution.” It is co-authored with … Continue reading The French Revolution, Property Rights, and the Coase Theorem with Noel Johnson →
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My guest for this episode is Ekaterina Jardim of the University of Washington. Ekaterina is one of the authors of the new minimum wage study that has been making headlines recently, “Minimum Wage Increases, Wages, and Low-Wage Employment: Evidence from Seattle.” One reason this study is so interesting is that it was funded by the … Continue reading The Seattle Minimum Wage Study with Ekaterina Jardim →
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My guest today is Kevin Erdmann, he blogs about economics and finance at Idiosyncratic Whisk. Kevin has written a ton about housing, as evidenced by the titles of his blog posts. A recent one is labeled Housing: Part 239. This series is part of a larger book project that Kevin is publically drafting on his … Continue reading Housing, Liquidity, and Closed-Access Cities with Kevin Erdmann →
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The guest for this episode is Jonathan Morduch, he is a professor of public policy and economics at NYU and the author of The Financial Diaries: How American Families Cope in a World of Uncertainty, co-authored with Rachel Schneider. The book looks at the financial situations of ordinary American families. It is centered around a … Continue reading The Financial Diaries with Jonathan Morduch →
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In this episode, I have three guests on the show with me: Kewei Hou of Ohio State University, Chen Xue of the University of Cincinnati, and Lu Zhang of Ohio State University. Kewei, Chen, and Lu have coauthored a paper titled “Replicating Anomalies,” a large-scale replication study that re-tests hundreds of so-called “anomalies” in financial … Continue reading Replicating Anomalies in Financial Markets with Hou, Xue, and Zhang →
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My guest on this episode is Kevin B. Grier of the University of Oklahoma. Our topic for today is a paper Kevin wrote on the economic consequences of Hugo Chavez along with coauthor Norman Maynard. I had Francisco Toro on the show last year to discuss Venezuela’s economic history, so you can listen to that … Continue reading Synthetic Control and the Impact of Hugo Chavez with Kevin B. Grier →
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My guest for this episode is Mark Koyama of George Mason University. Our topic is a recent paper titled, “States and Economic Growth: Capacity and Constraints,” which Mark coauthored with Noel Johnson. Just recorded at great podcast with @GarrettPetersen on my work on state capacity (with @ndjohnson). — Mark Koyama (@MarkKoyama) May 24, 2017 As … Continue reading State Capacity and the Rise of the Modern Nation State with Mark Koyama →
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My guest for this episode is Nuno Palma, he is an assistant professor of economics, econometrics, and finance at the University of Groningen. Our discussion begins with the monetary history of England. Nuno has authored a study that reconstructs England’s money supply from 1270 to 1870. We discuss his methods and findings. We also discuss … Continue reading Money, Trade, and Economic Growth in the Early Modern Period with Nuno Palma →
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My guest for this episode is Jari Eloranta, he is a professor of comparative economic and business history at Appalachian State University. Jari’s work focuses on the economic history of national defense. In this far-reaching conversation, we go all the way back to pre-modern societies’ methods of financing their militaries, then trace the transitions up … Continue reading The Economic History of War and Conflict with Jari Eloranta →
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My guest today is Alex Lubinsky, co-founder of the Silicon Valley startup Rentberry. Rentberry is a platform that lets landlords post units for rent so that tenants can bid on them. Once a landlord posts a vacancy, different potential tenants can make offers and the landlord can select which one to rent to. Importantly, the … Continue reading Rentberry, Digital Markets, and Affordable Housing with Alex Lubinsky →
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Hello and welcome to the fiftieth episode special of Economics Detective Radio! Today we have Ash Navabi back on the program, but we’re flipping the script: Ash will be interviewing me about the show and about all the things I’ve learned while making it. In this episode, I alienate the political right by discussing the … Continue reading 50th Episode Special with Garrett Petersen and Ash Navabi →
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Returning to the podcast is Vincent Geloso of Texas Tech University. Our topic for this episode is anthropometric history, the study of history by means of measuring humans. Doing serious historical research into the distant past is difficult work, because the further you look back in time, the less information you can access. For the … Continue reading Anthropometric History, Quebec, and the Antebellum Height Puzzle with Vincent Geloso →
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Today’s guest is Kate Raworth, she is a senior visiting research associate at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute, a Senior Associate at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, and the author of Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist. In this interesting and wide-ranging discussion, we discuss Kate’s critiques of the standard … Continue reading Doughnut Economics, Inequality, and the Future of Economic Growth with Kate Raworth →
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Today’s guest is Akin Unver of Kadir Has University. He uses geospatial data to study political events such as the attempted coup in Turkey in 2016. The coup was an attempt by certain rogue elements of the Turkish armed forces to oust President Erdogan. However, unlike past coups in 1960, 1971, 1980, and 1997, the … Continue reading Turkey’s Coup D’état and Geospatial Data Analysis with Akin Unver →
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This episode features Anton Howes of Brown University. He is a historian of innovation, and in this conversation we discuss his work on the explosion of innovation that occurred in Britain between 1551 and 1851. You can check out his Medium blog for some of the articles we discuss. Anton has collected a data set … Continue reading Innovation, Invention, and Britain’s Industrial Revolution with Anton Howes →
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What follows is an edited partial transcript of my conversation with Stephen M. Jones. He is an economist for the US Coast Guard. However, we are discussing his own research, so nothing in this conversation should be taken to represent the official views of the US Coast Guard. Petersen: So Stephen, let’s start just by … Continue reading Regulation, Discretion, and Public Choice with Stephen M. Jones →
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What follows is an edited transcript of my conversation with Maxime Bernier. If you like his ideas, I encourage you to go to his website to learn more about them. Petersen: You’re listening to Economics Detective Radio. Before we start let me give a quick disclaimer that although today’s guest is a politician this show … Continue reading Canada’s Cartel Problem with Maxime Bernier →
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What follows is an edited transcript of the first part of my conversation with Gret Glyer, creator of DonorSee. For the full conversation, listen to the episode. Petersen: My guest today is Gret Glyer, he is the creator of a new app called DonorSee. Gret, welcome to Economics Detective Radio. Glyer: Thank you for having me, … Continue reading DonorSee and the Future of Charitable Giving with Gret Glyer →
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What follows is an edited partial transcript of my conversation with George Bragues of the University of Guelph-Humber. We discussed his new book, Money, Markets, and Democracy: Politically Skewed Financial Markets and How to Fix Them. This is his second appearance on this show, you can hear the first one here. Petersen: So your book … Continue reading Money, Markets, and Democracy with George Bragues →
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Last January I made some predictions for 2016. In this post, I will see how they stacked up. Crossed out predictions indicate that I was wrong, italicized predictions indicate that I couldn’t determine whether I was right or wrong. World Events Canadian year-over-year CPI growth will be higher than it was in December 2015: 90% (Apparently … Continue reading How Did My 2016 Predictions Stack Up? →
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Many if not most people do not like math. They will tell you they are “not a math person.” Perhaps you are one of these people. You took exactly as much math in school as they made you, and not ε more! The problem with being “not a math person” is that math people enjoy … Continue reading How Bad at Math Are You Really? →
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What follows is an edited transcript of my discussion with Ray March about the economics of medicine and health insurance. We had a fascinating and far-reaching discussion about health care policy, both in the United States and Canada, as well as some cases of entrepreneurship in the medical sector. This includes a slightly awkward discussion … Continue reading Medicine, Entrepreneurship, and Health Policy with Ray March →
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What follows is an edited transcript of my conversation with Judy Stephenson. We discuss her work on the economic history of the Industrial Revolution, particularly as it pertains to early modern London. Petersen: You’re listening to Economics Detective Radio. My guest today is Judy Stephenson of Oxford University’s Wadham college. Judy, welcome to Economics Detective … Continue reading Early Modern London, Wages, and the Industrial Revolution with Judy Stephenson →
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What follows is an edited transcript of my conversation with Samuel Gross. Petersen: You’re listening to Economics Detective Radio. My guest today is Samuel Gross of the University of Michigan Law School. Sam, welcome to Economics Detective Radio. Gross: Great to be here. Petersen: So our topic for today is criminal justice, in particular, we’re … Continue reading Wrongful Convictions, Exoneration, and Criminal Justice with Samuel Gross →
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What follows is an edited transcript of my conversation with Otto Lehto. Petersen: You’re listening to Economics Detective Radio. My guest today is Otto Lehto of King’s College London. He is formerly the chair of Finland’s Basic Income Network. Otto, welcome to Economics Detective Radio. Lehto: Oh it’s my pleasure to be here. Petersen: So … Continue reading The Basic Income Guarantee, Freedom, and the Welfare State with Otto Lehto →
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What follows is an edited transcript of my conversation with Sam Hammond. Petersen: My guest today is Sam Hammond. He’s a policy analyst at the Niskanen Center. Sam, welcome to Economics Detective Radio. Hammond: Hi! Petersen: Our topic today is supersonic air travel. Sam has written an article titled “Make America Boom Again” along with … Continue reading Supersonic Flight, Technology, and the Overland Ban with Sam Hammond →
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Suppose you wanted to find out someone’s subjective belief in the likelihood of a given event. Your first instinct might be to offer them betting odds on the event. If they would accept odds of 2:1 but no lower, you might conclude that they believe the event to have a 33.3% chance of occurring. This … Continue reading Understanding the Karni Belief-Revelation Mechanism →
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Today’s interview features Joanna Szurmak of the University of Toronto. Our topic for today is the second proposed bet between Paul Ehrlich and Julian Simon. Joanna has written a paper titled “Care to Wager Again? An Appraisal of Paul Ehrlich’s Counter-Bet Offer to Julian Simon” along with coauthors Vincent Geloso and Pierre Desrochers, both former … Continue reading The Second Ehrlich-Simon Wager with Joanna Szurmak →
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Following the success of the EGSS’ first prediction contest, I have organized a second contest! The predictions were made on November 17th, 2016 and will resolve on March 17th, 2017. The three contestants with the lowest Brier scores (average squared errors) will win gift cards! 1. The price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil will … Continue reading Prediction Contest 2: Electric Boogaloo →
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My guest today is Ed Conard, here to discuss his recent book, The Upside of Inequality: How Good Intentions Undermine the Middle Class. He is a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a former managing director at Bain Capital. His 2012 book, Unintended Consequences: Why Everything You’ve Been Told About the Economy Is … Continue reading The Upside of Inequality with Ed Conard →
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What follows is an edited transcript of my interview with Alex Salter about the economics of space. The first half deals primarily with the issue of space debris, while the second half deals with the possibility of private governance in space. There’s something in this episode for everyone to enjoy, so I hope you’ll listen, … Continue reading Space Debris, Governance, and the Economics of Space with Alex Salter →
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What follows is an edited transcript of my conversation with Vincent Geloso. Petersen: My guest today is Vincent Geloso of the Free Market Institute at Texas Tech University. Vincent, welcome to Economics Detective Radio. Geloso: It’s a pleasure to be here. Petersen: So the paper we’ll be discussing today is titled “A U-curve of Inequality? … Continue reading Re-thinking the U-Curve of Inequality with Vincent Geloso →
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There’s a joke among anarchists: “What’s the difference between a minarchist and an anarchist? Six months!” For context, a minarchist is someone who believes in a minimal state. The joke is commenting on the large number of people who discover libertarian philosophy and end up gradually becoming more extreme in their views until they conclude … Continue reading Identity is the Mind-Killer →
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What follows is an edited transcript of my conversation with Emily Hamilton about land use regulations’ effects on affordable housing. Petersen: My guest today is Emily Hamilton. She is a researcher at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Emily, thanks for being on Economics Detective Radio. Hamilton: Thanks a lot for having me. Petersen: … Continue reading How Land Use Restrictions Make Housing Unaffordable with Emily Hamilton →
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In this episode, I discuss the process of writing and being successful with Mike Munger. What follows is an edited transcript of our conversation. Petersen: My guest today is Mike Munger of Duke University. Mike, welcome to Economics Detective Radio! Munger: It’s a pleasure to be on your show! Petersen: So first I stole EconTalk’s … Continue reading Writing and Thinking Less Badly with Mike Munger →
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[2020 update: Scroll to the end for a discussion of new technology for video podcasting!] Just three months ago, I wrote my podcasting gear guide to let potential podcasters know about my setup and the equipment I recommend. That guide represents the gold standard in podcasting that existed when I was starting out in 2014. To … Continue reading A Podcasting Revolution: Cast, Ringr, and Zencastr →
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Today’s guest is Stephen Smith, he is an analyst for a New York real estate firm. Stephen did some research showing that at least 40 percent of the buildings in Manhattan could not be built under today’s zoning regulations. In fact, the number is probably significantly higher. Classic landmarks like the Empire State Building, with … Continue reading New York Urbanism with Stephen Smith →
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The Intelligent Economist has named Economics Detective Radio one of the top 25 economics podcasts of 2016! I look forward to making the show even better in 2017, so stay tuned! If you haven’t subscribed to the show, be sure to do so. You can do it through the built-in Podcasts app on your iOS … Continue reading Economics Detective Radio Named One of the Top 25 Economics Podcasts of 2016 →
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My guest today is Jason Brennan of the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. He is the author of Against Democracy, which is our topic for this episode. The first chapter is available on the publisher’s website. John Stuart Mill believed that getting more people involved in politics would make them smarter, more concerned … Continue reading Democracy Versus Epistocracy with Jason Brennan →
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Today’s guest on Economics Detective Radio is Chuck Marohn, founder and president of Strong Towns. Strong Towns is a non-profit that seeks to reform America from the ground up, starting with its towns and cities. It aims to promote healthy local economies by improving local governance. The Growth Ponzi Scheme Chuck began recognizing the problems … Continue reading Urban Development, the Growth Ponzi Scheme, and Strong Towns with Chuck Marohn →
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I answered this question on Quora. My answer was “No.” But it was a very detailed no. Here’s an excerpt: Chavez was a true, dyed-in-the-wool socialist. He passed many reforms that would have crippled another nation. For instance, he made it illegal for private employers to fire anyone. Hiring an employee in Venezuela means paying … Continue reading Will Socialism be able to save Venezuela as Bernie Sanders felt it could save America? →
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Today’s guest is Steve Horwitz, he is the Charles A. Dana Professor and Chair of the economics department at St. Lawrence University. Steve recently wrote an article titled, “Make Babies, and Don’t Let the Greens Guilt Trip You about It.” This was a response to an argument made by the bioethicist Travis Rieder, who was … Continue reading Population Growth, the Ethics of Having Children, and Climate Change with Steve Horwitz →
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This week’s episode of Economics Detective Radio deals with the economic thought and continuing popularity of Marx. No, not Groucho! The other Marx! My guest on the podcast is Phil Magness, a historian who teaches at George Mason University. Phil recently wrote a piece entitled, “Commie Chic and Quantifying Marx on the Syllabus.” Recently, the … Continue reading Marx, his Errors, and his Continuing Influence with Phil Magness →
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Today’s guest on Economics Detective Radio is Nolan Gray. Nolan is a writer for Market Urbanism and the host of the recently launched Market Urbanism Podcast. Market urbanism is the synthesis of classical liberal economics and an appreciation for urban life. Market urbanists are interested in economic issues specific to cities, such as housing affordability … Continue reading Trailer Parks, Zoning, and Market Urbanism with Nolan Gray →
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Today’s guest is Francisco Toro, he is the blog editor at The Caracas Chronicles, a group blog about Venezuela. Venezuela has all the markings of a paradise. It has a lush, tropical climate and access to vast oil reserves. And yet, the Venezuelan government has run the country into the ground. As of now, all … Continue reading Venezuela, El Caracazo, and Chavism with Francisco Toro →
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Pierre Desrochers returns to the podcast to discuss the fossil fuel divestment movement in higher education. He recently co-authored a paper titled “Blowing Hot Air on the Wrong Target? A Critique of the Fossil Fuel Divestment Movement in Higher Education” with Hiroko Shimizu. The fossil fuel divestment movement seeks to combat the environmental damage done … Continue reading Against Fossil Fuel Divestment with Pierre Desrochers →
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Garett Jones returns to the podcast to discuss the issue of ethnic diversity. There is a wide body of research showing that ethnic diversity can reduce the productivity of teams, firms, and even whole countries. Williams and O’Reilly (1996) review dozens of studies showing that ethnic diversity has a negative impact on group performance. In … Continue reading The Costs of Ethnic Diversity with Garett Jones →
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I answered this question on Quora. I loved the question because it encompassed three of my main interests: Podcasts, self-driving cars, and the economic way of thinking. Great question! I hadn’t thought of that possibility, which is surprising given my interest in both self-driving cars and podcasting. First, let’s establish what a podcast is. A … Continue reading Will Self-Driving Cars End the Podcast Renaissance? →
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I’ve been asked a few times about my podcasting setup. Since I have done a significant amount of research on podcasting and podcasting equipment, I’ll share that with you here. Microphones All podcasters must have a microphone! You could use the one built into your smart phone if you wanted to be really cheap, but ideally you … Continue reading Podcasting Gear Guide →
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Classical liberals like Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek have supported the idea of a basic income guarantee as an improvement on the current patchwork of welfare programs. The welfare systems in most countries are the product of a century of piecemeal reforms, where politicians have created many overlapping programs targeting different problems and interest groups. … Continue reading A Basic Income Guarantee Can Work if it Replaces State Education and Medicine →
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Two days ago, Britain voted to leave the European Union (EU). The “leave” option won with 52 percent of the vote, leaving elites and the media frustrated with voters for choosing what they perceive to be the “wrong” option. My guest today to discuss Brexit is Sam Bowman, Executive Director of the Adam Smith Institute. … Continue reading Brexit, The European Union, and the European Economic Area with Sam Bowman →
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When I think of emulation, I think of retro gaming. My Android phone can easily emulate a Super Nintendo, a gaming console from the 1990s, and it can do that because the phone is much more powerful than the Super Nintendo and because we know exactly how a Super Nintendo works. My guest for this … Continue reading The Age of Em, Whole Brain Emulation, and Humanity’s Future with Robin Hanson →
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Chris Stewart’s excellent podcast, The History of China, had an interesting discussion of an economic debate that happened in 734. The debate in the Tang court was between Chang Chiu-lin, a Confucian who favoured legalizing illicit minting, and many Legalist officials who opposed legalization. I was so intrigued that I read through the source material … Continue reading The Tang Coinage Debate of 734 →
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I can’t be sure that people who listen to my podcast, read my blog, or watch my YouTube videos are aware of the other content I create. I made three videos to promote my recent interview with Mark Thornton. I used the audio from my interview along with stock footage, some archival footage, images, and … Continue reading Three Videos About Drug Prohibition →
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Mark Thornton is a Senior Fellow at the Mises Institute. He is the author of many books, including The Economics of Prohibition (which you can access for free here), which is also the topic of this episode. 1. Does drug prohibition help stop poverty and homelessness? The conventional wisdom on drugs is simple: you see … Continue reading Drugs, Prohibition, and the Suburban Overdose Crisis with Mark Thornton →
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In my capacity as President of the Economics Graduate Student Society at SFU, I set up a prediction contest. We hosted a pub night and I used the opportunity to solicit predictions on a wide range of topics. The person with the lowest Brier score will be the winner. The predictions were made on March … Continue reading Prediction Contest 2016 →
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Fellow Vancouverite and accomplished internet troll Lauren Southern started a hashtag called #TheTriggering. The idea is that every March 9th, everyone tweets out all their non-PC opinions and jokes at the same time under this hashtag in defense of free speech. #TheTriggering isn’t about being jerks it’s about free speech. Post jokes people are on … Continue reading I Went on a Twitter Rampage for #TheTriggering →
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I quoted the following passage from Richard Posner in my recent article on Scotland’s three-verdict system: When . . . judges and juries are asked to translate the requisite confidence into percentage terms or betting odds, they sometimes come up with ridiculously low figures-in one survey, as low as 76 percent, see United States v. … Continue reading A Minor Correction to Richard Posner →
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Lately I’ve been interested in true crime stories. It started with Serial and Undisclosed, two excellent podcasts on the case of Adnan Syed, a Baltimore teenager wrongfully (yes, wrongfully) convicted of killing his girlfriend in 1999. Then came the popular Netflix documentary Making a Murderer, which detailed the case of Steven Avery, who was wrongfully … Continue reading Scotland’s Curious Three-Verdict System →
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Ancient Rome went from a thriving civilization to a dystopia before its eventual collapse. My guests today explain how that happened. Lawrence Reed and Marc Hyden co-authored “The Slow-Motion Financial Suicide of the Roman Empire.” Lawrence is the President of the Foundation for Economic Education, and Marc is a political activist and amateur Roman historian. … Continue reading Rome’s Economic Suicide with Lawrence Reed and Marc Hyden →
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This year I will be making a series of predictions about the future, and assigning each of them a probability. I was inspired to do so by Scott Alexander and Phillip Tetlock. Too many commentators make vague predictions about future events and then declare victory however things turn out. So, in the interest of holding … Continue reading Predictions for 2016 →
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Garett Jones is Associate Professor of Economics and BB&T Professor for the Study of Capitalism at the Mercatus Center, George Mason University. His book, Hive Mind: How Your Nation’s IQ Matters so Much More than Your Own is the subject of this episode. The book deals with an empirical puzzle: IQ is a weak predictor … Continue reading Hive Mind, IQ, and the Wealth of Nations with Garett Jones →
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Finland has plans to scrap its welfare state in favour of a universal basic income of 800 Euros. While it may sound counterintuitive, the basic income is intended to encourage more people back to work in Finland, where unemployment is at record levels. At present, many unemployed people would be worse off if they took … Continue reading Finland to Introduce a Basic Income →
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Perhaps you’ve heard about a precocious study making the rounds about the differences between male and female brains. Perhaps you’ve noticed it reported under headlines like, “Stereotypically ‘male and female brains’ aren’t real, say scientists” or “Brains aren’t actually ‘male’ or ‘female,’ new study suggests” or “Scans prove there’s no such thing as a ‘male’ … Continue reading New Study Finds Strong Evidence of Male-Female Brain Differences →
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I attended a Students for Liberty conference organized by my good friend Liz Jaluague and happened to speak to a reporter from The Tyee. We talked about many things, but she made climate change her focus when writing her article. Here’s my part: Like Proenca, Garrett Petersen is conflicted about climate change. The PhD candidate … Continue reading The Tyee Asks About Climate Change →
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Wearable, artificial kidneys have been in the news recently as a new technological alternative to traditional dialysis. Great news! Or is it? Don’t get me wrong, this technological advance will make people’s lives better. But the incentives to create artificial kidneys should never have existed. Before I tell you why, I need to lay out … Continue reading Artificial Kidneys Would Not Have Been Created in a Free Market →
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Alex Tabarrok has fascinating post about Feeding America, a large non-profit that distributes food to food banks. Feeding America used an inefficient, centrally planned system to distribute foods, which led to a lot of waste. In 2005, however, a group of Chicago academics, including economists, worked with Feeding America to redesign the system using market … Continue reading The Most Socially Desirable Outcome by the Least Efficient Method! →
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Ash Navabi returns to the podcast to discuss his essay, “Will Iceland’s Sovereign Money Proposal End Economic Crises?” In April of 2015, Frosti Sigurjonsson, Member of the Parliament of Iceland and Chairman of the Committee for Economic Affairs and Trade, made a bold proposal to end fractional reserve banking and replace it with a system … Continue reading Icelandic Sovereign Money with Ash Navabi →
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I’m in the second year of my PhD, and I’m working to develop a research program; hopefully one that gets me a finished dissertation as soon as possible. I’m drawn towards studying education because (1) I have spent my entire life in schools and (2) schools are seriously, and obviously, messed up. The marginal benefit … Continue reading Thoughts on the Behavioural Economics of Education →
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In two unrelated stories, Karl Marx’s grave charges a very un-communist entry fee, and a statue of Lenin was converted to Darth Vader (with free wifi!). You win this round, capitalism! “NPR Voice” is radio professionals’ attempt to make highly scripted content sound spontaneous. As a podcaster, I’ve never had to deal with the problem … Continue reading Links: Capitalism Overcomes Marx and Lenin →
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There’s another Afterthoughts episode of Economics Detective Radio. It’s exclusive bonus content for those who support me on Patreon. In this episode, I discuss my recent conversation with Cornelius Christian. To hear it, you have to become a patron through Patreon. That entails signing up to give a small donation (at least $1) for each … Continue reading Afterthoughts: Violence, Lynchings, Civil War, and Witch Trials with Cornelius Christian →
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Cornelius Christian is an Assistant Professor of Economics at St. Francis Xavier University. His research concerns development economics, economic history, and the economics of conflict and violence, which is the topic of this episode of Economics Detective Radio. Cornelius’ paper “Lynchings, Labour, and Cotton in the US South” deals with violence against black people in … Continue reading Violence, Lynchings, Civil War, and Witch Trials with Cornelius Christian →
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I’ve read a lot of LessWrong recently, and I learned about a particular paradox known as Newcomb’s problem. In the problem, an alien superintelligence called Omega presents you with a choice. He gives you two boxes, box A and box B. He puts $1000 in box A and either $0 or $1,000,000 in box B. … Continue reading Newcomb’s Problem and Order in Game Theory →
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Scott Alexander has an article at Slate Star Codex discussing the use of edge cases in moral philosophy: There’s a tradition at least as old as Kant of investigating philosophical dilemmas by appealing to our intuitions about extreme cases. Kant, remember, proposed that it was always wrong to lie. A contemporary of his, Benjamin Constant, … Continue reading The Trolley Car Approach to Public Policy →
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…or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Inequality. David R. Henderson is a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, and a professor of economics at the Graduate School of Business and Public Policy, Naval Postgraduate School, in Monterey, California. Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century managed to do something unprecedented among … Continue reading Income and Wealth Inequality with David R. Henderson →
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What sounds more difficult to you, figuring out supply and demand, or accurately measuring the Earth’s circumference? It must be supply and demand, because Eratosthenes figured out the other one two thousand years before anyone really managed any progress on that supply-and-demand stuff. So now that we’ve established that supply and demand is much harder … Continue reading Economics and the Cognitive Minefield →
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The perennial debate about “mathiness” in economics has returned, this time sparked by a Paul Romer article in the AER P&P. The arguments largely focus around the usefulness of mathematics for various applications. These are the technical arguments of practitioners. I’d like to abstract from these arguments and look at the issue as an economist. … Continue reading The Meta-Economics of Mathiness →
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I shared Jeffrey Tucker’s article about Hillary Clinton, and pulled out this quote: Meanwhile, Hillary’s actual policies on women are a disaster waiting to happen. Consider her support for “equal pay for equal work.” What effect will this have on women in the workforce? It not only puts government in charge of micromanaging every aspect … Continue reading It All Comes Back to the Minimum Wage Debate →
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…it’s Aladdin’s attitude towards wealth and poverty. That’s what struck me while re-watching this thoroughly enjoyable movie. After being called a “street rat,” Aladdin tells Abu, “Someday, Abu, things are gonna change. We’ll be rich, live in a palace, and never have any problems at all.” This is an extraordinary view for a peasant orphan … Continue reading Aladdin’s Biggest Anachronism isn’t Genie’s Jack Nicholson Impression… →
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I just released the first Afterthoughts episode of Economics Detective Radio. It’s fifteen minutes of bonus content for those who support me through Patreon. In this episode, I discuss my recent conversation with Don Boudreaux. I touch on the following topics: The media and its incentives History and legal precedent The British common law To … Continue reading Afterthoughts: Civil Asset Forfeiture with Don Boudreaux →
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As a Canadian, it’s very strange hearing Americans talk about the Great Depression. The American public education system apparently has a monolithic view on the subject. Based purely on my interactions with people who have passed through that system, I imagine their kindergarten classes must be something like this: TEACHER: Alright students, what’s 1 + … Continue reading The Prima Facie Case that Great Depression Policy was Really Really Bad →
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Don Boudreaux is a professor of economics at George Mason University. He blogs at Café Hayek. I invited him to discuss civil asset forfeiture on the podcast because of a conversation we had about it at a recent Mercatus Center colloquium. Civil asset forfeiture is the practice of the state taking someone’s property on suspicion … Continue reading Civil Asset Forfeiture with Don Boudreaux →
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Here’s a video I had made with the audio from my interview with Jimmy Morrison. JIMMY: Ever since Alan Greenspan became the Federal Reserve Chairman in the mid-80s, he’s just been bailing out Wall Street every chance he can get: the S&L crisis, the Tequila crisis in Mexico in the early 90’s, and the dot … Continue reading Alan Greenspan was Not a Free Market Guy →
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Erik Kimbrough, assistant professor of economics at Simon Fraser University, is an experimental economist. In this episode, we discuss his paper, “Norms Make Preferences Social” which he coauthored with Alexander Vostroknutov. Experimental economics began with Vernon Smith’s double auction experiments in the 1950s. Smith wanted to test whether market participants could converge to the equilibrium … Continue reading Experimental Economics, Norms, and Prosocial Behaviour with Erik Kimbrough →
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Jimmy Morrison is an independent filmmaker who is currently directing two films: The Housing Bubble and The Bigger Bubble. The Housing Bubble deals with the history of business cycles in America, spanning from the First World War to the 2008 crash. The Bigger Bubble deals with the aftermath of the 2008 crash. These films began … Continue reading The Bubble Films with Jimmy Morrison →
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Someone on Quora was wondering whether Murray Rothbard was a good economist. I obliged with an answer: Yes. Murray Rothbard was a prolific thinker whose contributions to economics were numerous, original, and significant. His magnum opus, Man, Economy, and State, was the first complete treatise on economics in a half century. The book was originally … Continue reading Was Murray Rothbard a Good Economist? →
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My latest article on Mises Canada takes on the Price Transparency Act, a piece of legislation that would allow the Competition Bureau to investigate alleged “price gouging” of Canadians. Here’s a bit of it: The price transparency act aims to seek out firms that sell profitably in Canadian markets and shame them into charging lower … Continue reading Against the Price Transparency Act →
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This episode of Economics Detective Radio features George Bragues, professor of business at the University of Guelph-Humber, discussing his work developing a distinctly Austrian theory of finance. While there have been forays into finance by Austrians such as Mark Skousen and Peter Boettke, Austrians have not yet fully developed a complete and distinctly Austrian theory … Continue reading Finance and the Austrian School with George Bragues →
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I answered this question over at Quora. Just about all the other answers were wrong, so I thought I’d set things straight. No. Value is not a quantity. It cannot be compared across individuals, so we cannot say that $50 is more valuable to person A than to person B. To understand value, you must … Continue reading Is a Small Amount of Money More Valuable to a Low Income Person than to a High Income Person? →
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When I was young, I played a lot of Age of Empires. For those who are unfamiliar with the series, they are games where the player must direct a tiny civilization’s development. He begins with one building and only a few villagers. By right clicking on a villager, then left clicking on a tree, stone … Continue reading Teaching Economics: Age of Empires and Central Planning →
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This episode of Economics Detective Radio features Pierre Desrochers discussing the life and work of Jane Jacobs. Jacobs, born Jane Butzner, was a thinker and activist who wrote about cities. She spent her early career as a business journalist. When she started writing about urban renewal, she recognized the policy for the disaster it was. Jacobs … Continue reading Jane Jacobs as Spontaneous Order Theorist with Pierre Desrochers →
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My latest Mises Canada post is all about Native tribes: Ludwig von Mises wrote that, “[d]emocratic control is budgetary control. The government has but one source of revenue—taxes. … But if the government has other sources of income it can free itself from this control.”[1] This principle is particularly important for understanding the internal politics … Continue reading On the Political Economy of Native Tribes →
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My latest Mises Canada article deals with the economist’s response to snobbery: The world is full of snobs. There are music snobs who complain that most people prefer Lady Gaga to Stravinsky, film snobs who complain that most people prefer action movies to art films, and food snobs who complain that most people prefer pizza … Continue reading Economics is a Philosophy of Tolerance →
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This episode of Economics Detective Radio features Zack Hess. Zack is working on a project called “TruthCoin,” a decentralized prediction market based on the technology behind bitcoin. Prediction markets are a highly effective way to bring together dispersed information and insight into prices that reflect the likelihood of any future event. However, recent attempts to … Continue reading TruthCoin, Prediction Markets, and Anarchy with Zack Hess →
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Well, this is awkward. You told us that utility was strictly ordinal, that utility functions were unique up to a monotonic transformation. But whenever there’s a problem that requires them to be cardinal in some sense, you just revert right back to cardinality, don’t you? Remember how interpersonal comparisons of utility were supposed to be … Continue reading About Those Monotonic Transformations… →
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In this episode, Glen Whitman discusses Economics of the Undead: Vampires, Zombies, and the Dismal Science, a book he co-edited with James Dow. Glen is an economics professor at California State University and, unlike most academic economists, he moonlights as a TV writer. He first wrote for the TV show Fringe and now writes for … Continue reading Vampires, Zombies, and the Dismal Science with Glen Whitman →
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In this episode, Nathan Smith discusses the economics and history of migration and migration restrictions. Nathan is an Assistant Professor of Business Administration: Finance and Economics at Fresno Pacific University and regular blogger at Open Borders: The Case. We start the episode by discussing the economic impacts of Nathan’s own migration to Fresno. Students gain, … Continue reading Migration and Open Borders with Nathan Smith →
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The minimum wage is a contentious issue among economists, and yet it enjoys near-universal support among the public. In my view, public views of the minimum wage are simply the result of a lack of careful thought by most people. Daniel Kahneman’s theory that people, when faced with a difficult question, substitute a simpler question … Continue reading Price Theory and the Minimum Wage →
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In this episode, Diana Thomas discusses the relationship between the Virginia School of Political Economy and the Austrian School of Economics. Diana is an Associate Professor of Economics at the Heider College of Business at Creighton University. The Virginia School is a branch of public choice, the application of the tools and techniques of economics … Continue reading Virginia Political Economy and Entrepreneurship with Diana Thomas →
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A key difference between Austrian economics and the neoclassical-mathematical economics developed in the mid-twentieth century by Paul Samuelson and others is the assumption by the latter that people are essentially omniscient. What neoclassical economists call “rationality” effectively means omniscience. When the agents in neoclassical models face any uncertainty, the uncertainty is always fully understood in … Continue reading Economic Calculation and Education →
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In this episode, Ash Navabi discusses whether the Austrian School of Economics is a cult and the value of mathematics in economic theory. Ash is an economics student at Ryerson University. Ash wrote an article responding to recent criticisms of the Austrian school by Keynesian bloggers Noah Smith and Paul Krugman. Krugman approvingly referenced Smith’s attacks … Continue reading The Austrian Cult and Mathematical Economics with Ash Navabi →
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I have published my first blog post over at Mises Canada. The post relates Böhm-Bawerk’s price theory to modern job-matching models. Here are the key paragraphs: [M]odern labour economists’ use of discrete reasoning in job-matching models should be lauded as a step towards greater realism. In these models, there are a discrete number of unemployed … Continue reading Mainstream Economists Rediscover the Marginal Pair →
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In this episode, James Caton discusses the classical and inter-war gold standards. James is an economics PhD student at George Mason University. Gold has many qualities that make it an ideal money: It is valuable, scarce, divisible, and easy to transport. It is also easy to verify the value of a given amount of gold: … Continue reading Gold and the Great Depression with James Caton →
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Simple English Wikipedia is an edition of the open-source encyclopedia designed to be intelligible to small children, adults with learning disabilities, and people who are learning English. It is also an entertaining read, because the simple language often makes things silly. I found the article on Keynesian economics to be particularly silly and entertaining: Keynesian economics (also … Continue reading Simple Keynesianism →
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The economic argument for state certification of certain professions rests on asymmetric information. The idea is that consumers might not know enough about medicine, for instance, to tell the difference between a good doctor and a quack. If we let consumers choose their doctors without constraint, so the reasoning goes, we would be overrun with quacks. … Continue reading How Private Certification Regulates the Market for Piano Teachers →
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Last night I had a nice conversation with some other Queen’s economics alumni. When the conversation turned to politics, I said that I didn’t want to follow the next election and that I had promised myself I wouldn’t support the lesser evil. I may have come off as apathetic about politics, but that was not … Continue reading Radicalism and the Political Landscape →
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J. K. Rowling has revealed in interviews what some of her characters went on to do after the close of the Harry Potter series. Unfortunately, they all became bureaucrats! Here is what she revealed about Hermione Granger’s future: Hermione began her post-Hogwarts career at the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures where she … Continue reading Hermione Granger, Capitalist? →
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Well, that was unexpected: Archie Andrews, a staple of American comics since 1941, will die in Wednesday’s issue of Life with Archie. And he’ll say goodbye to the series with one last act of heroism: Archie will take a bullet meant for best friend Kevin Keller, the first openly gay character in his comic universe. In doing … Continue reading Archie Dies for Leftism →
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The American Apparel board of directors has ousted the company’s founder. The company stock jumped up nearly 20% on the announcement. Contrary to what we see in the movies, being a successful founder of a big company does not entitle one to kick back, smoke cigars, and let the profits roll in. Dov Charney had … Continue reading American Apparel Demonstrates a Fundamental Principle of Capitalism →
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Today I will be dispensing life advice. There’s a certain type of person who will tell you that you should follow your passion regardless of money concerns; to do otherwise would be “selling out.” This is pretty terrible advice. If eating, sleeping, and going to the bathroom are not my passions, should I never do … Continue reading My Get-Rich-Slow Scheme →
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Here’s a conversation between a reporter and one of the alleged beneficiaries of Seattle airport’s $15/hour minimum wage: “Are you happy with the $15 wage?” I asked the full-time cleaning lady. “It sounds good, but it’s not good,” the woman said. “Why?” I asked. “I lost my 401k, health insurance, paid holiday, and vacation,” she … Continue reading How Do We Know (That The Minimum Wage Hurts Workers)? →
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I have some problems with the rational expectations hypothesis. To hear some macro economists talk about it, you’d think that it was a wonderful scientific innovation for economists to start assuming that the agents in their models know the structure of the economy and only make random errors in forecasting. Such sentiments are entirely misguided. … Continue reading What’s the Big Deal with Rational Expectations? →
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Under the common law, lawyers are not allowed to ask witnesses “leading questions,” as witnesses can be influenced by the way questions are asked. A leading question is one that suggests a particular answer, for instance, “Were you at the country club on Saturday night?” is a leading question, while, “Where were you on Saturday night?” is … Continue reading Significance Tests as Leading Questions →
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When calico printed cloth was introduced to Europe, the French government banned it. They employed gestapo-style tactics to stamp out the new innovation. Here’s Murray Rothbard’s summary of the fiasco, from his excellent An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought (vol. 1, p. 219): The new cloth, printed calicoes, began to be imported … Continue reading Louis XIV Lives On →
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In Human Action, Mises distinguishes between what he calls “class probability” and “case probability.” He defines class probability as such: Class probability means: We know or assume to know, with regard to the problem concerned, everything about the behavior of a whole class of events or phenomena; but about the actual singular events or phenomena we … Continue reading Mises, Probability, and the Two Envelopes Problem →
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This series of pictures of castles and NYC apartments has been trending on the internet. Everyone recognizes that real estate in NYC is outrageously expensive. What they fail to recognize is that it’s the city’s rent control and zoning policies since WWII that have prevented the construction necessary to meet New York citizens’ housing needs. The … Continue reading NYC Apartments Cost as Much as Castles (and People Just Don’t Get Why) →
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The EU is legislating away food speculation to decrease food price volatility. This could not possibly backfire. Goldman Sachs, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley together made an estimated £2.2 billion from speculating on food including wheat, maize and soy between 2010 and 2012. Speculation increases price volatility and has been a major factor in … Continue reading Food Socialism Coming to an EU Near You! →
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Prediction markets are a wonderful thing. The only problem is that governments keep shutting them down! The solution is to create a bitcoin-style, decentralized prediction market that can’t easily be shut down. The prediction market could take bets denominated in bitcoin or another cryptocurrency. As with these cryptocurrencies, this prediction market would have a public … Continue reading We Need a Bitcoin-Style Prediction Market →
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I was reading the comments on another blog, where I found someone complaining about Austrian (and Austrian-sympathizing) economists. This person’s undergraduate institution had a few Austrian (and Austrian-sympathizing) economists who would closely watch bright students (like vultures!), befriend them (how creepy!), help them to get TA-ships (oh no!), and invite them to private seminars where … Continue reading Mainstream Economics has a PR Problem →
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Here’s a passage from Human Action that I just found so interesting that I had to post it in its entirety (pp. 767-69 of the Scholar’s Edition): Knowledge of the effects of government interference with market prices makes us comprehend the economic causes of a momentous historical event, the decline of ancient civilization. It may … Continue reading Observations on the Causes of the Decline of Ancient Civilization, by Ludwig von Mises →
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An opinion piece in the Harvard Crimson, written by one Sandra Y. L. Korn, is a work of such utter sophistry that the fact that it comes from the top academic institution on the globe is not the least bit surprising. Korn argues that Harvard should jettison academic freedom in favour of her concept of … Continue reading Harvard No Longer Requires Critical Thinking Skills, Apparently →
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The Guardian reports that Abba’s wild outfits were influenced by Swedish tax laws: According to Abba: The Official Photo Book, published to mark 40 years since they won Eurovision with Waterloo, the band’s style was influenced in part by laws that allowed the cost of outfits to be deducted against tax – so long as … Continue reading Rock Stars Respond to Incentives Like the Rest of Us →
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I am currently reading Human Action for the first time, so I will pose a question here for anyone more familiar with Mises’ theory of the trade cycle than I am: Would Mises view the US government’s deficit spending as mitigating the harmful effects of quantitative easing? Mises repeatedly emphasizes that his theory describes the … Continue reading Would Mises have Supported Fiscal Stimulus? →
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Have you ever experienced learning a new word and then hearing it everywhere in the days after you learn it? I’ve had a similar experience since making my argument that the burden of proof that the minimum wage is beneficial falls on the law’s supporters. Now I’m seeing people making burden-of-proof arguments everywhere. Bryan Caplan, in … Continue reading Assigning the Burden of Proof →
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Spencer writes the following in the comments to my post about monopsony and the minimum wage: “If wages increase, the employer would want to increase workers productivity normally that would entail improved working conditions. But you are claiming that employers react to higher wages by implementing policies that reduce productivity — that does not make … Continue reading Benefits Vs. Capital →
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Kevin Erdmann, over at Idiosyncratic Whisk, posted a graph similar to the one shown above,* demonstrating that the trend in the US teen employment rate after a minimum wage hike was lower in all but one case than the trend before the hike. There have been many responses, but I would like to focus on … Continue reading Erdmann, Empiricism, and the Minimum Wage →
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“Some mysteries aren’t questions to be answered, but just a kind of opaque fact—a thing which exists to be not known.” – Welcome to Night Vale: A Story About You The above quote was in an episode of the excellent podcast Welcome to Night Vale. I love the term “opaque fact,” and it strikes me … Continue reading Opaque Facts →
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Suppose it is entirely true that the employers of low-skilled workers have monopsony power over those workers. Maybe low-skilled workers aren’t informed about their other options. Standard economic analysis would indicate that under such conditions, the minimum wage could increase employment. However, this standard analysis simplifies the labour contract down to two elements: price and … Continue reading Monopsony and the Minimum Wage →
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Can you imagine a news article with that title? Certainly not. How about this one: Abstaining from alcohol significantly shortens life. There, that’s more sensational, isn’t it? (To be fair, that’s the title on the page, not the title of the article. I’m not sure why they aren’t the same.) I’ve seen news articles circulating … Continue reading Abstaining From Alcohol has Ambiguous Effect on Life Expectancy: Study →
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This blog is about economics. Economics is about people. People are about six feet tall. What is economics? It’s the science of human action. People have goals, and they employ means to achieve those goals according to their beliefs. They act. I will use this blog to explore economics, to discuss current and historical events … Continue reading Introducing the Economics Detective →
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