The scramble for Africa
29 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in economic history, international economics, International law Tags: Age of Discovery, age of empires
The Great Enrichment
29 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in economic history, health economics Tags: life expectancies, The Great Escape
What does a Nobel Prize on ‘innovation-driven economic growth’ actually reward?
21 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic growth, economic history, history of economic thought, macroeconomics
A historian’s perspective on how to deal with the Nobel frenzy I generally try to stay away from the Economics Nobel frenzy, if only because the hyper-personalization of scientific achievements it entails it at odds with how we historians understand credit dynamics in science. Economics research has become increasingly collective, drawing on expertise in theory, […]
What does a Nobel Prize on ‘innovation-driven economic growth’ actually reward?
The Costs and Benefits of British Colonialism
20 Oct 2025 1 Comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic history, growth disasters, growth miracles Tags: age of empires, economics of colonialism
The British Empire, which at its height ruled over a quarter of the world’s population and landmass, remains one of the most consequential forces in global history. Its legacy is deeply contested: defenders emphasize the spread of law, education, and infrastructure, while critics highlight the violence, exploitation, and cultural destruction it entailed. A balanced assessment […]
The Costs and Benefits of British Colonialism
My excellent Conversation with George Selgin
19 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, business cycles, economic history, fiscal policy, great depression, history of economic thought, macroeconomics, monetary economics Tags: monetary policy
Here is the audio, video, and transcript. Here is part of the episode summary: Tyler and George discuss the surprising lack of fiscal and monetary stimulus in the New Deal, whether revaluing gold was really the best path to economic reflation, how much Glass-Steagall and other individual parts of the New Deal mattered, Keynes’ “very […]
My excellent Conversation with George Selgin
A Nobel for Innovation-Driven Economic Growth: Aghion, Howitt, and Mokyr
14 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic growth, economic history, history of economic thought, macroeconomics
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2025 was awarded this morning for “for having explained innovation-driven economic growth.” The award was divided between Joel Mokyr ““for having identified the prerequisites for sustained growth through technological progress” to Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt “for the theory of sustained growth through…
A Nobel for Innovation-Driven Economic Growth: Aghion, Howitt, and Mokyr
Germany’s Reckoning – Bulgarian Armistice I THE GREAT WAR Week 219
06 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economic history, war and peace Tags: World War I
Unbeatable: The Brutally Honest Case for Free Markets | Bryan Caplan
04 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economic growth, economic history, income redistribution, industrial organisation, labour economics, law and economics, liberalism, libertarianism, macroeconomics, Public Choice Tags: The Great Enrichment
No Right to Stable Climate in Our Holocene Epoch
02 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of climate change, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming
Leszek Marks explains how warming and cooling alternated throughout the last 12,000 years and how our modern period is no different in his paper Contemporary global warming versus climate change in the Holocene. Excerpts in italics with my bolds and added images. H/T No Tricks Zone Leszek Eugeniusz Marks is a Polish geologist, professor ordinarius, […]
No Right to Stable Climate in Our Holocene Epoch
Historical omissions plague BBC ‘Palestinian state’ explainer
02 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economic history, International law, law and economics, property rights, war and peace Tags: Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, regressive left, war against terror, West Bank
On July 30th 2025 the BBC News website published an ‘explainer’ article by Paul Adams under the headline “What does recognising a Palestinian state mean?”. Since its initial publication, that article – which currently appears on the website’s ‘Middle East’ page – has been updated several times, including a recent amendment to its introduction: Original […]
Historical omissions plague BBC ‘Palestinian state’ explainer
The population bust
02 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic history, growth miracles, labour economics, labour supply, population economics Tags: ageing society, China, population bust
The role and power of the Victorian House of Lords
01 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in constitutional political economy, economic history, Public Choice Tags: British constitutional law, British politics
Dr Philip Salmon looks at a key element of Parliament which we don’t usually have much opportunity to reflect on in our work on Victorian MPs and constituencies: the House of Lords. As he explains below, the upper chamber played a vital role in many important 19th century reforms and continued to wield significant influence […]
The role and power of the Victorian House of Lords
Not-so-killer acquisitions
27 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, economics of regulation, industrial organisation, law and economics, politics - USA, theory of the firm Tags: competition law
Eric Crampton writes – A lot of changes are coming in competition policy. Last week, the government announced a package of reforms that, overall, set the Commerce Commission on a more activist tack. One proposed reform will align New Zealand more closely with Australia’s regime, guarding against so-called ‘killer acquisitions’.
Not-so-killer acquisitions
Economics of Trade Sanctions
26 Sep 2025 1 Comment
in applied price theory, defence economics, development economics, economic history, economics of regulation, industrial organisation, international economics Tags: trade sanctions
The exercise of US foreign policy (along with the European Union and the United Nations) has been increasingly characterized by the use (or threat) of trade sanctions. What do we know about how such sanctions work? Gabriel Felbermayr, T. Clifton Morgan, Constantinos Syropoulos, and Yoto V. Yotov review the evidence in “Economic Sanctions: Stylized Facts…
Economics of Trade Sanctions
Colonisation was liberation
25 Sep 2025 1 Comment
in constitutional political economy, development economics, economic history, politics - New Zealand Tags: Age of Discovery, age of empires, economics of colonialism
It is striking how often the loudest voices in New Zealand’s race debate come from those who have the faintest connection to being Māori. The same individuals who enjoy cushy jobs and generous salaries often exploit a sliver of Māori ancestry to advance themselves, however they spend their days decrying colonisation as if it were…
Colonisation was liberation
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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