Mere Economics

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Latest — 06 Nov 2025

Douglas A. Irwin, "Three Simple Principles of Trade Policy"

You can find it here. It's almost 30 years old, but (sadly?), the lessons are relevant for today. Irwin explains, clearly and succinctly, three things that everyone needs to know about international trade: "a tax on imports is a tax on exports," "businesses are consumers

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Recent (Re)Reading

Daniel Klein, Knowledge and Coordination: A Liberal Interpretation. An important book on an important topic; it sheds light on what economists in the "mainline" tradition (though he doesn't use this phrase) mean when they are talking about "coordination." I worry that when economists think

#FreeBookFriday: Immigration!

I think it should be a lot easier for people to move from low-income to high-income countries. Why? The utilitarian economic reason is that it would open the economic floodgates and help many, many people prosper. Here are a few resources for the skeptical reader or someone looking for ways

Simon Sanity

Adding more people causes problems. But people are also the means to solve these problems. The main fuel to speed the world’s progress is our stock of knowledge; the brakes are our lack of imagination and unsound social regulations of these activities. The ultimate resource is people—especially skilled,

Macaulay Message

In every age everybody knows that up to his own time, progressive improvement has been taking place; nobody seems to reckon on any improvement in the next generation. We cannot absolutely prove that those are in error who say society has reached a turning point – that we have seen our

Demsetz Declaration

The view that now pervades much public policy economics implicitly presents the relevant choice as between an ideal norm and an existing "imperfect" institutional arrangement. This nirvana approach differs considerably from a comparative institution approach in which the relevant choice is between alternative real institutional arrangements. From his

Jasay Gem

Here we reach the nub of the problem of why people in some societies behave mostly well, while in others they so often misbehave. Law even at its best controls only a small part of human behavior. At its worst, it aspires to control a great part, but largely fails.

On Mere Economics: A Reply to Peter Leithart

Mere Economics, Not Summa Economica Peter Leithart—Theopolis Institute president and master of all things biblical-typological—recently reviewed Mere Economics in his donors-only Theopolitan newsletter. We’re honored, having profited from his writing. We’re especially gratified that he finds the book “clear,” “workmanlike,” and “true and accurate in many,

Oppenheimer Observation

There are two fundamentally opposed means whereby man, requiring sustenance, is impelled to obtain the necessary means for satisfying his desires. These are work and robbery, one’s own labor and the forcible appropriation of the labor of others… I propose in the following discussion to call one’s own

Bauer Brilliance

I regard the extension of the range of choice, that is, an increase in the range of effective alternatives open to people, as the principal objective and criterion of economic development; and I judge a measure principally by its probable effects on the range of alternatives open to individuals. From