An Economist’s Case for Liberty | David Friedman
07 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, David Friedman, economics of bureaucracy, economics of information, economics of regulation, history of economic thought, income redistribution, law and economics, libertarianism, market efficiency, Milton Friedman, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking
A new critique of RCTs
02 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in econometerics, history of economic thought
Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) are the gold standard for evaluating the effects of interventions because they rely on simple assumptions. Their validity also depends on an implicit assumption: that the research process itself—including how participants are assigned—does not affect outcomes. In this paper, I challenge this assumption by showing that outcomes can depend on the […]
A new critique of RCTs
The MR Podcast: Our Favorite Models, Session 2: The Baumol Effect
29 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, entrepreneurship, history of economic thought, industrial organisation
On The Marginal Revolution Podcast this week we continue discussing some of our favorite models with a whole episode on the Baumol effect (with a sideline into the Linder effect). I say our favorite models, but the Baumol Effect is not one of Tyler’s favorite models! I thought this was a funny section: TABARROK: When you […]
The MR Podcast: Our Favorite Models, Session 2: The Baumol Effect
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?
Some simple economics of AI and macro cycles
20 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, business cycles, economic growth, entrepreneurship, history of economic thought, macroeconomics
Has AI been propping up the American economy? For instance “the Bureau of Economic Analysis’s category for investment in information processing equipment and software accounts for over 90 percent of economic growth in the first half of 2025.” The key question is what would have been done with those resources otherwise. Regardless of their specific […]
Some simple economics of AI and macro cycles
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
The Power of Creative Destruction
15 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in history of economic thought
That is the title of a book co-authored by Philippe Aghion, one of this this year’s winners of the Nobel Prize in economics. See The Power of Creative Destruction: Economic Upheaval and the Wealth of Nations.Here is the Amazon summary:”Inequality is on the rise, growth stagnant, the environment in crisis. Covid seems to have exposed every…
The Power of Creative Destruction
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
Ninth Karl Brunner Distinguished Lecture by John H. Cochrane, 02.10.2025
14 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in budget deficits, business cycles, economic growth, fiscal policy, history of economic thought, macroeconomics, monetarism, monetary economics
Quotation of the Day…
05 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, history of economic thought, international economics
Tweet… is from page 196 of Arnold Kling‘s excellent 2004 book, Learning Economics: [O]utsourcing is symmetric. For every job that we outsource to India, India outsources a job to us. That giant sucking sound you hear is jobs being created in the U.S. to meet the needs of Indian consumers. That is guaranteed to happen.…
Quotation of the Day…
Is it dangerous to say that entrepreneurs are heroes?
30 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, entrepreneurship, history of economic thought, industrial organisation
Back in the early 1990s, I wrote a paper called “The Creative-Destroyers: Are Entrepreneurs Mythological Heroes?” A reviewer at a journal said “The conclusion that entrepreneurs are heroes seems to be very dangerous!” That was in 1993.There is a picture of this review below. After that is a link to where I posted this paper here…
Is it dangerous to say that entrepreneurs are heroes?
Revisiting Empirical Macroeconomics with Robert Barro (Harvard Economics…
28 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in budget deficits, business cycles, economic growth, fiscal policy, history of economic thought, macroeconomics, monetary economics
Samuelson on socialism
25 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, development economics, economic history, growth disasters, growth miracles, history of economic thought, Marxist economics Tags: East Germany, economics of central planning, West Germany
Samuelson on Marx
24 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, history of economic thought, Marxist economics
Milton Friedman Did Not Concoct a False Image of Adam Smith
21 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in Adam Smith, history of economic thought, Milton Friedman
TweetHere’s a letter to the Wall Street Journal. Editor: Glory Liu argues that, in reality, Adam Smith wasn’t as favorably disposed to free markets as Milton Friedman portrayed him as being (“Adam Smith Is Known for His ‘Invisible Hand’ Theory. The Truth Is More Complex.” September 13). Her evidence for this thesis is thin. While,…
Milton Friedman Did Not Concoct a False Image of Adam Smith
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
Recent Comments