AIER provides Americans with unbiased research and critical analysis based on the principles of positive economics. American Institute for Economic Research educates Americans on the value of personal freedom, free enterprise, property rights, limited government and sound money. AIER’s ongoing scientific research demonstrates the importance of these principles in advancing peace, prosperity and human progress.
Founded in 1933, AIER is a donor-based non-profit economic research organization. We represent no fund, concentration of wealth, or other special interests, and no advertising is accepted in our publications. Financial support is provided by tax-deductible contributions, and by the earnings of our wholly owned investment advisory organization, American Investment Services, Inc.
Economist and Revolutionary – Adam Smith and 1776
Samuel Gregg examines Adam Smith’s analysis of the economic drivers behind the American Revolution. He highlights Smith’s revolutionary solutions for resolving the conflict and concludes by applying these enduring insights to contemporary global issues.
Permission to Earn a Living: History, Economics, and the Ethics of Occupational Licensing
Where occupational licensing exceeds genuine public safety needs, it substitutes centralized judgment and political privilege for the preferences of consumers and workers.
Ending the Era of Energy Favoritism: How Technology-Neutral Policy Can Unlock the US Power Grid
The US energy system should shift from a hodgepodge of politically favored technologies toward a market-driven portfolio that is cleaner, more reliable, and increasingly affordable.
The Economics of Zoning, Explained
What are zoning laws, how do they work, and what are their economic effects?
A Brief History of Federal Transfers to the States
This explainer traces the evolving, mutually dependent relationship between the federal government and the states through four pivotal eras of fiscal transfers: the Antebellum Land Grants, the Civil War, the New Deal, and the Great Society.
Mises and Hayek: Two Complementary Critiques of Central Planning
Economists Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek explain why the promises of central planning are fundamentally unworkable insofar as no central authority can replicate the rational calculation of market prices or the coordination of dispersed knowledge.
Nuclear Power: A Free Market Approach
Nuclear energy is a source of clean, dependable power. It is the only carbon-free energy source that can reliably deliver power day and night on a large scale. But its potential will remain strangled by political constraints until we recognize that the path to a sustainable, competitive, and safe nuclear future runs straight through the free market. It is time to end the era of political capitalism in this sector and allow the atom to compete on its own merits.
The Gold Standard, Explained
This explainer will outline what the gold standard was, how it operated, the benefits and criticisms surrounding it, and how its rise and eventual collapse shaped the global monetary system.
Look West, America
The American Institute for Economic Research educates people on the value of personal freedom, free enterprise, property rights, limited government, and sound money. AIER’s ongoing scientific research demonstrates the importance of these principles in advancing peace, prosperity, and human progress.
Understanding Medicaid
This explainer will outline how Medicaid functions, the program’s costs, its influence on healthcare in the United States, and how the proposed policy changes in 2025 could reshape the program.
Have Mount Laurel Obligations Made New Jersey Housing More Affordable? A Synthetic Control Analysis of Housing Supply and Cost
This paper investigates the ef …
Enabling Bad Behavior: The Federal Reserve’s Municipal Liquidity Facility in Retrospect
Executive Summary In response …
How Long Could That $1.8 Billion Powerball Jackpot Fund the Government?
In 2022, I described what Cong …