A free and prosperous society requires a functioning market economy at its foundation. Using a broad array of tools drawn from price theory, public choice analysis, Austrian theory, and classical empiricism, our study of economics and economic freedom explores the underpinnings of the market system, the roots of economic prosperity, and emerging threats to the same in the public policy sphere. Our work includes the measurement of freedom and providing practical economic information for people to make better decisions.
Articles
What Zimbabwe Can Learn From Chile: A Tale of Two Data Series
Economic freedom, like freedom in general, is inherently fragile. National institutions and attitudes can shift the ground quickly.
Immigration Arrest Quotas Undermine ICE’s Mission
Numerical targets predictably distort enforcement priorities, ignoring local knowledge, undermining both public safety and economic stability.
Census Migration Data Show the Value of Freedom
Americans prefer to live where they can keep what they earn and be left alone — even if the freebies are better elsewhere.
Prediction Markets and The Ethics of Betting on Bad News
Accurately predicting disaster is actually quite useful, and prediction markets reward people for operationalizing information others don’t yet have.
Fusionism
Past, Present, and a Conservative Liberal Future? A reinvigorated conservative liberal Fusionism — emphasizing limited government, free enterprise, and a transcendent moral order — may offer the best hope at…
Jurisdiction Shopping: The Forgotten Logic Behind Flag Theory
Governments claim monopoly, but we can choose between them. Flag theory explains how mobility, diversification, and “exit” create a real marketplace for governance.
How Does Your State Rank on This Economic Freedom Index?
The Fraser Institute has published new data showing how policy incentives shape states' growth.
Rent Money Isn’t Wasted — It Buys Protection from Big Risk
Rent is a premium to avoid risk and preserve mobility. Landlords don't just collect checks: they absorb the financial volatility of homeownership.
How Many Work-Hours Does a Car Cost? The Model T to Today
The Model T brought mobility within reach of ordinary workers. Despite huge improvements, affordability has eroded as real costs climb.
Don’t Push the Policy Button!
Economists design “optimal” interventions with caveats and disclaimers. Politicians treat them like irresistible big red buttons.
Research Publications
INTERNATIONAL SANCTIONS: Effective economic weapon or fundamentally flawed policy tool?
PC Earle. Financial History, 12-15, 2022
General Institutional Considerations of Blockchain and Emerging Applications
PC Earle, DM Waugh. The Emerald Handbook on Cryptoassets: Investment Opportunities and …, 2023
Decentralized Marketplaces with Privately Enforced Contracts: A Case Study of OpenBazaar.
PC Earle, M Gulker, EP Stringham. Journal of Private Enterprise 37 (4), 2022
A Gay Bar and Some Polygamists Had a Fight over Zoning…
RM Yonk. Cato Institute, 2022
Achieving Ecological Reflexivity: The Limits of Deliberation and the Alternative of Free-Market-Environmentalism
J Enninga, RM Yonk. Sustainability 15 (8), 6396, 2023
Marie Springer: The politics of Ponzi schemes: history, theory, and policy: Routledge, 2020
RE Wright. Business Economics 57 (2), 89-91, 2022
The History and Evolution of the North American Wildlife Conservation Model
RE Wright. Palgrave Macmillan, 2022
The Political Economy of Modern Wildlife Management: How Commercialization Could Reduce Game Overabundance
RE Wright. The Independent Review 26 (4), 513-532, 2022
The calculus of dissent: Bias and diversity in FOMC projections
TL Hogan. Public Choice 191 (1-2), 105-135, 2022
Framing affordable housing: an experimental test of changing attitudes
M Matheis, J Sorens. Housing Studies, 1-17, 2022
Regulatory Decentralization and Stringency: The Case of Comparative Minimum Wage and Renewable Energy Policies
J Sorens. Publius: The Journal of Federalism 53 (1), 55-81, 2023
Changing Minds on Restrictive Zoning: How to Unclog America’s Home Supply
J Sorens. Manhattan Institute, Apr 1, 2022
Situating Southern Influences in James M. Buchanan and Modern Public Choice Economics
A Carden, V Geloso, PW Magness. Standard of Living: Essays on Economics, History, and Religion in Honor of …, 2022
Gordon Tullock and the Economics of Slavery
P Magness, A Carden, I Murtazashvili. Available at SSRN 4318585, 2023
How pronounced is the U-curve? Revisiting income inequality in the United States, 1917–60
VJ Geloso, P Magness, J Moore, P Schlosser. The Economic Journal 132 (647), 2366-2391, 2022
Books
