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
Stop Lamenting Inequality—Start Questioning Bad Policy
Global inequality has narrowed and the poor are gaining ground. If the system feels rigged, we should look to government policies that suppress competition and reward insiders.
Reflections on Four Decades of Teaching ECON 101
The most important lessons of an economic way of thinking haven't changed much in 40 years. But the students have.
A Praxeology of Productivity: Messy Humans, Not Machines, Run the Economy
Productivity depends not just on systems and incentives, but on human action, aspirations, and judgment.
Milei’s Argentina: Between Liberation and the Institutional Trap
As the human face of shock therapy, Javier Milei faces a difficult path attempting to reform a state long dominated by entrenched interests.
India’s Aviation Meltdown Reveals Hazards of Command-and-Control
Concentrated markets and micromanaging regulators can turn a policy change into systemic failure. Rules matter, but the cost is resilience.
Anthropic vs. The Pentagon: AI Ethics Collide With Government Power
Can the Pentagon blacklist an American business for refusing to build killbots? The federal government demands tight controls for you, but wants unrestricted power for itself.
Worries Spread in Private Credit Markets
Risk migrated outside traditional banks, but insolvencies and widening credit spreads are raising questions about leverage and liquidity strain system-wide.
The Economics of Zoning, Explained
What are zoning laws, how do they work, and what are their economic effects?
The Student Loan Reckoning Has Arrived
Pandemic forbearance and reporting “on-ramps” masked mounting strain, but loans are now coming due, and serious delinquencies are rising.
Why Do Investors Keep Buying Century Bonds?
Investors buying 100-year bonds are making a bold wager on inflation, monetary policy, and financial stability.
Research Publications
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
INTERNATIONAL SANCTIONS: Effective economic weapon or fundamentally flawed policy tool?
PC Earle. Financial History, 12-15, 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 Political Economy of Modern Wildlife Management: How Commercialization Could Reduce Game Overabundance
RE Wright. The Independent Review 26 (4), 513-532, 2022
The History and Evolution of the North American Wildlife Conservation Model
RE Wright. Palgrave Macmillan, 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
