Economic Theory

  • Who is the Greatest Economist of All Time?

    “No matter what your specialization, whether in economics or in any other field, Cowen has written a book which is trying to convince you to break out of your specialization and rediscover the broader world of ideas.” ~James Hartley

    Who is the Greatest Economist of All Time?
  • Milton Friedman Was More Like F.A. Hayek Than He Likely Knew

    “While both men won the Nobel Prize in economics – Hayek in 1974 and Friedman in 1976 – economists regard the scholarly work of Hayek as differing almost categorically from that of Friedman.” ~Donald J. Boudreaux

    Milton Friedman Was More Like F.A. Hayek Than He Likely Knew
  • Are CEOs overpaid?

    “Behavioral economics contributes the insight that different kinds of compensation incentivize, reward, and support different kinds of behavior, so a range of justifications for executive compensation may come into play and need to be considered by directors and the compensation committee.” ~Robert Mulligan

    Are CEOs overpaid?
  • On Exceptions to the Rule of a Policy of Free Trade

    “Justification of a policy of free trade does not rest on the claim that free trade in each and every case yields ‘optimal’ results, or a stream of results as excellent as those that would be achieved by protectionist policies.” ~Donald J. Boudreaux

    On Exceptions to the Rule of a Policy of Free Trade
  • Bookstore Protectionism

    “Both past and present suits claimed that the problem was dominant sellers unfairly harming independents, which thereby undermined competition. But in that, they misrepresented both what competition means and who was harming less-successful competitors.” ~Gary M. Galles

    Bookstore Protectionism
  • The Mating of Economic Ideas and Bitcoin

    “As Bitcoin is a highly decentralized and antifragile system with no real-world backed assets that can be seized to shut it down, appears to be the only realistic candidate to introduce something that government cannot stop.” ~ Emile Phaneuf III

    The Mating of Economic Ideas and Bitcoin
  • The Essential Ethic of Socialism

    “In a socialist regime, I must seek the permission of others — whether state officials or one’s fellow workers — before I serve them in a novel way.” ~ Adam Martin

    The Essential Ethic of Socialism
  • Industrial Policy Does Indeed Fall Victim to the Knowledge Problem

    “Prices, asset values, and profits and losses determined in open markets in which people spend and invest their own (and only their own) money are the only sources of information in a modern economy about which resource uses are worthwhile and which resource uses aren’t worthwhile.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux

    Industrial Policy Does Indeed Fall Victim to the Knowledge Problem
  • Economists’ Meaning of “Consumption”

    “Because ‘to produce’ means ‘to increase humans’ opportunities to consume,’ Adam Smith is correct: consumption is indeed the sole end and purpose of all production.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux

    Economists’ Meaning of “Consumption”
  • Lessons from the Phillips Curve

    “The exploration of the Phillips Curve has taken many different paths and yet somehow ended up in the same place. The world could have been spared much of this meandering with a more firm grounding in what theory does and does not tell us.” ~ Joshua R. Hendrickson

    Lessons from the Phillips Curve
  • The Division of Labor and the Diminution of Man

    “Every job is more than just a job. It is also an opportunity to help another human being develop as a member, a contributor, and perhaps even a leader in a society dedicated to freedom and responsibility.” ~ Richard Gunderman

    The Division of Labor and the Diminution of Man