A decade ago, I coauthored a report looking at how greater localism and subsidiarity could be achieved in a very centralised country where local councils have variable capabilities. We settled on policy trial areas. The basic gist was as follows. First, a community would pitch a policy trial area – a special economic zone – with different policy…
SEZs as policy trial areas
SEZs as policy trial areas
29 May 2026 1 Comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economic growth, economics of regulation, industrial organisation, law and economics, macroeconomics, property rights
Bet On It Book Club: For a New Liberty, Chapter 13
24 May 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, comparative institutional analysis, economics of regulation, environmental economics, environmentalism, history of economic thought, law and economics, Murray Rothbard, property rights, Public Choice
SummaryThis chapter, on “Conservation, Ecology, and Growth,” is an early statement of free-market environmentalism. It begins by ridiculing leftists’ decades of contradictory complaints about capitalism: “Stagnation; deficient growth; overaffluence; overpoverty; the intellectual fashions changed like ladies’ hemlines,” and quoting one of Schumpeter’s best lines:Capitalism stands its trial before judges who have the sentence of death…
Bet On It Book Club: For a New Liberty, Chapter 13
The Case Against Socialism, Part V
24 May 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic growth, economic history, growth disasters, growth miracles, macroeconomics, Marxist economics Tags: North Korea, South Korea
As far as I know, Matt Mitchell and I are not related, but we both have a low opinion of socialism. He covers a lot of ground (defining socialism, the role of prices, socialism’s death toll, and the myth of Nordic socialism) in this 15-minute interview. Matt does such a good job that I didn’t […]
The Case Against Socialism, Part V
The Rise and Fall (and Rise) of Sweden, Part IV
23 May 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economic growth, economic history, economics of regulation, industrial organisation, international economics, macroeconomics, public economics Tags: Sweden
I don’t often claim to be ahead of the curve, but I’m going to pat myself on the back in today’s column about Swedish economic policy. More than 16 years ago, I started writing about Sweden’s shift from statism to markets. More than 14 years ago, I praised Swedish policy makers for significantly reducing the […]
The Rise and Fall (and Rise) of Sweden, Part IV
Myth, Memory and the BNZ
22 May 2026 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, economic history, economics of regulation, industrial organisation, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, privatisation, property rights
Winston should be ashamed
Myth, Memory and the BNZ
The economics of unions
22 May 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, econometerics, economic history, industrial organisation, labour economics, survivor principle, unions
My best read of the evidence is that a union raises wages by around 7% for currently unionized employees. The wage gains from a redistribution of rents evenly across workers. Wage compression exists, but redistribution from worker to worker is only a small part. These are the current effects – unionizing more of the economy […]
The economics of unions
The Sting in the India Trade Deal
16 May 2026 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic history, economics of regulation, international economic law, international economics, International law, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: India, preferential trading agreements
A Constitutional Trojan Horse: advancing change through political stealth Trade Minister Hon Todd McClay has announced that the New Zealand-India free trade agreement has been signed and that the formal parliamentary treaty scrutiny process is now under way. The full text of the agreement is now public and has been referred to Parliament’s Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee […]
The Sting in the India Trade Deal
Strategic overhangs and ways to prevent them in MMP systems
15 May 2026 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, politics - New Zealand
In mixed-member proportional (MMP) electoral systems, an “overhang” seat can result if a party wins more seats via the nominal tier (of, typically, single-seat districts) than it would be entitled to if a regular proportional-representation (PR) systems were used.
Strategic overhangs and ways to prevent them in MMP systems
A Friendly Appeal to the Unconvinced
14 May 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic history, liberalism Tags: The Great Enrichment
An excerpt from the conclusion of *Unbeatable*
A Friendly Appeal to the Unconvinced
The economics of castles
10 May 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, defence economics, economic history
When I’m in Britain or Ireland, one of my favourite sightseeing trips is to visit medieval castles. Even the ruined ones are fun to visit. Actually, maybe the ruined ones are more fun to visit, because you get to imagine what they would have looked like in their heyday. Britain and Ireland are full of castles,…
The economics of castles
Grow the Pie, Skip the Sermon
08 May 2026 Leave a comment
in Adam Smith, applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economic history, health economics, history of economic thought, liberalism, Marxist economics
In a recent Substack essay, “The progress movement needs a better theory of progress,” Brink Lindsey argues that the progress movement has settled for too thin a vision. It focuses on wealth creation and technological advance, he says, when it should adopt a “fuller conception of progress”—one that promotes “spiritual welfare” and thicker accounts of…
Grow the Pie, Skip the Sermon
Economics is Counter-Emotional, Not Counter-Intuitive
30 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economics of education, economics of information, history of economic thought, Public Choice
A few months ago, a high school econ student asked me to zoom with his class. I’m working against a tight deadline for Blockade, so I was inclined to decline. But the student’s list of questions was so ambitious that I decided to make the time. See for yourself:Here is the plan:- 5 minutes -WELCOME…
Economics is Counter-Emotional, Not Counter-Intuitive
How Reform Happens
30 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, econometerics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, growth disasters, growth miracles, history of economic thought, Public Choice
What determines whether and how regulations are reformed? We use a newly constructed data set of 3,590 successful and failed regulatory reforms in 189 countries, between 2005 and 2022, to address this question. We document that regulations have become more business friendly in some regulatory domains but not others. We also show that regulations are…
How Reform Happens
A discussion about Anti-Capitalism and “Public Health”
15 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economics of regulation, health economics, liberalism, Marxist economics Tags: nanny state, regressive left
I spoke to my friends at the Sloavkian think tank INESS (the Institute of Economic and Social Studies) recently. We talked about my 2025 paper Anti-Capitalism and Public Health and you can watch the video below.
A discussion about Anti-Capitalism and “Public Health”
Wealth Is Not a Fixed Pie
27 Mar 2026 1 Comment
in applied price theory, behavioural economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, growth disasters, growth miracles
One of the most destructive myths in economics is the zero-sum fallacy. Back in 2018, I shared a cartoon that sought to debunk the notion that one person getting richer meant another person had to be poorer. But I wasn’t satisfied with the cartoon, so I offered a modified version. But I still didn’t think […]
Wealth Is Not a Fixed Pie
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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