Mere Economics (Page 13)

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Bill and Ted Take Joan of Arc to Walmart

Note: This post originally appeared at The American Institute for Economic Research. It’s pretty clear: if you wanted Joan of Arc to appreciate the differences between her world and ours, you would take her to the nearest Walmart. In 1989’s critically acclaimed cinematic masterpiece Bill & Ted’s

Lewis Lesson

Is there any possibility of getting the super Welfare State’s honey and avoiding the sting? Let us make no mistake about the sting. The Swedish sadness is only a foretaste. To live his life in his own way, to call his house his castle, to enjoy the fruits of

Pay for Convenience: Travel Edition

I'm a big fan of paying for convenience. In any decision, you have to weigh the costs and the benefits very carefully. That's why, on a recent trip to visit my sister and her family in Minneapolis, I paid the person next to me $10 to

Law and Economics Classics - Law Amid Flux

At Grove City College, I teach Law and Economics--a course that explicitly examines how "people expand their options by cooperating." It therefore lies at the heart of "mere economics." In this sermon series, I'll be posting a summary of classic L&E papers

Is Academic Research Really A Public Good?

Academia: "Basic research is a public good the market will under-provide because there are spillover benefits market prices don't capture." Also Academia: "Pregnancy is a disease and 'stereotypes about gender, as well as efforts to exploit the reproductive bodies of chickens, have aided the

Jessica Kiser on Provider Choice and Health Outcomes

My wife and I are due with our first in a short weeks, so naturally, this paper by econ job market candidate, Jessica Kiser, caught my eye. Here's her abstract: 💡Home births in the US have increased twofold since the early 2000s, yet little is known about the

#FreeBookFriday: More Foundations of Mere Economics

Last week, Art posted some links to free books that form the foundations of our thinking in Mere Economics. In that spirit, here are a few more. Frederic Bastiat, Economic Sophisms. The book is a "pre-refutation" of the current embrace of protectionism. No economist wrote with as much

#FreeBookFriday: James M. Buchanan Edition

In 1986, James M. Buchanan was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work developing public choice theory. As luck would have it, Liberty Fund has made some of his most important works available online. Here are some of the most important ones. Buchanan's Nobel Prize Page. It'

I Read Things And Write About Them: Reviews in Regulation

The last two issues of Regulation contain a couple of my book reviews. Late Admissions: Confessions of a Black Conservative, by Glenn Loury. Review here. Glenn Loury is one of the greatest economist of the last half-century, and his name comes up in the Nobel Prize conversation. He also hosts

Did Smith, Ricardo, and Mill Toil in Vain?

In his underrated book (originally published in 1960, but containing a collection of essays that spanned decades), Epistemological Problems of Economics, Ludwig von Mises wrote: * Once one has correctly grasped the position of the concept of cost within the framework of modern science, one will have no difficulty in seeing