A Conversation with Gary Becker
10 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, behavioural economics, comparative institutional analysis, discrimination, economic history, economics of education, economics of information, Gary Becker, gender, history of economic thought, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality
Quotation of the Day…
01 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, behavioural economics, economic history, history of economic thought, human capital, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice Tags: capitalism and freedom, evolutionary psychology, The Great Enrichment
Tweet… is from my emeritus Nobel-laureate colleague Vernon Smith‘s splendid speech “Human Betterment Through Globalization,” delivered in September 2005 at the Irvington-on-Hudson then-headquarters of the Foundation for Economic Education: The challenge is that we all function simultaneously in two overlapping worlds of exchange. First, we live in a world of personal, social exchange based on…
Quotation of the Day…
You’re fooling yourself if you think you can land that plane
05 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in behavioural economics, economics of education, economics of information, economics of media and culture, transport economics Tags: air accidents
Almost everyone has thought about it at least once. You’re on a plane, minding your own business when suddenly and unexpectedly, an announcement comes over your entertainment system that the pilots have been incapacitated and they are urgently looking for someone to land the plane. Would you put your hand up for this heroic task?…
You’re fooling yourself if you think you can land that plane
What Was Gary Becker’s Biggest Mistake?
15 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
in behavioural economics, economics of crime, Gary Becker, history of economic thought, law and economics
The econometrician Henri Theil once said “models are to be used but not to be believed.” I use the rational actor model for thinking about marginal changes but Gary Becker really believed the model. Once, at a dinner with Becker, I remarked that extreme punishment could lead to so much poverty and hatred that it could create blowback. Becker […]
What Was Gary Becker’s Biggest Mistake?
George Selgin – replace the Fed
07 Dec 2021 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, Austrian economics, behavioural economics, business cycles, economic history, global financial crisis (GFC), great depression, great recession, macroeconomics, monetarism, monetary economics Tags: monetary policy
Economic Growth in the Long Run: Artificial Intelligence Explosion or an Empty Planet? Ben Jones & Chad Jones
27 Nov 2021 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, behavioural economics, comparative institutional analysis, development economics, discrimination, economic growth, economic history, economics of education, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, gender, growth disasters, growth miracles, history of economic thought, human capital, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, macroeconomics, occupational choice, population economics, poverty and inequality, property rights, public economics, survivor principle Tags: creative destruction, economics of fertility, endogenous growth theory
The Simpsons take on Social Justice Warriors
12 Oct 2021 Leave a comment
in behavioural economics, liberalism, libertarianism, Marxist economics, Public Choice, television Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left
George Stigler 50 Years Later: Part 2 – Advancing The Theory of Economic Regulation
05 Aug 2021 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, behavioural economics, comparative institutional analysis, economics of bureaucracy, economics of information, economics of regulation, history of economic thought, income redistribution, law and economics, Public Choice, rentseeking, Sam Peltzman
Cass Sunstein Simpler
03 Aug 2021 Leave a comment
in behavioural economics, economics of bureaucracy, economics of information, economics of regulation, industrial organisation, law and economics, Public Choice Tags: The fatal conceit
Oliver Hart, Incomplete Contracts and Control
28 Jul 2021 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, behavioural economics, comparative institutional analysis, economics of information, economics of regulation, financial economics, industrial organisation, law and economics, property rights, Ronald Coase, theory of the firm
ECON2175 2111 Lecture 3 – Were People from the Past Irrational Morons?
24 Jan 2021 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, behavioural economics, economic history, economics of information
Why conspiracy theories are rational to believe
12 Sep 2020 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, behavioural economics, comparative institutional analysis, economics of education, economics of information, economics of media and culture, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: cognitive psychology, conspiracy theorists, political psychology
How many lockdowns are one too many? #COVID19 op-ed in @DomPost
07 Aug 2020 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, behavioural economics, economics of bureaucracy, health economics, law and economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: economics of pandemics, offsetting behaviour, pessimism bias, The fatal conceit, unintended consequences
theory of conflict by Thomas C Schelling 2016
17 Apr 2020 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, behavioural economics, comparative institutional analysis, defence economics, economics of crime, economics of education, economics of information, labour economics, law and economics, property rights, Public Choice Tags: game theory, Thomas Schelling
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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