When a truly great new invention appears, people rarely greet it with the reverence that hindsight later bestows. Instead, they squint at it through the lens of the familiar. They ask: What is this like? And because it is not like anything they already know, they underestimate it. History is littered with inventions that, at […]
The initial underappreciation of great inventions
The initial underappreciation of great inventions
31 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in economic history, industrial organisation Tags: creative destruction, The Great Enrichment
Sectoral shifts in supply, wartime agriculture edition
26 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economic history, industrial organisation, war and peace Tags: British history, World War II
It is all the more remarkable, then, that within six years Britain’s agricultural output had transformed, more profoundly and at a faster pace than any time since the start of the Industrial Revolution. The most urgent need was to provide a substitute for all that previously imported foreign wheat. In 1939, Britain only had 11.8…
Sectoral shifts in supply, wartime agriculture edition
AI and Jobs: Interview with David Autor
25 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply Tags: creative destruction
Sara Frueh interviews David Autor on the subject: “How Is AI Shaping the Future of Work?” (Issues in Science and Technology, January 6, 2026). Here are some snippets that caught my eye, but it’s worth reading the essay and even clicking on some of the suggested additional readings: How broadly are AI tools already being…
AI and Jobs: Interview with David Autor
Is there a British productivity comeback?
20 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economic growth, economic history, industrial organisation, macroeconomics Tags: British disease
Let us hope: Britain is seeing early signs of a long-awaited turnaround of its productivity woes, according to an alternative measure that suggests output per hour worked has risen at a pace not seen since before the financial crisis. The Resolution Foundation said a “blistering” productivity surge has been masked by problems with official statistics and pointed…
Is there a British productivity comeback?
A functional organization helps Apple innovate
20 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, managerial economics, organisational economics Tags: creative destruction
HBR: SUMMARY:THE CHALLENGE: Major companies competing in many industries struggle to stay abreast of rapidly changing technologies. ONE MAJOR CAUSE: They are typically organized into business units, each with its own set of functions. Thus the key decision makers—the unit leaders—lack a deep understanding of all the domains that answer to them.THE APPLE MODEL: The company is organized…
A functional organization helps Apple innovate
AI, labor markets, and wages
18 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economic growth, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, poverty and inequality Tags: creative destruction, pessimist bias
There is a new and optimistic paper by Lukas Althoff and Hugo Reichardt: Artificial intelligence is changing which tasks workers do and how they do them. Predicting its labor market consequences requires understanding how technical change affects workers’ productivity across tasks, how workers adapt by changing occupations and acquiring new skills, and how wages adjust…
AI, labor markets, and wages
‘Market Power in Antitrust Cases,’ by William M. Landes and Richard A. Posner
17 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of regulation, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, law and economics, politics - USA, Richard Posner Tags: competition law
William M. Landes and Richard A. Posner’s 1981 Harvard Law Review article “Market Power in Antitrust Cases” is a true classic. Showing the value of interdisciplinary work within the law & economics tradition, it brought real clarity to what “market power” means and how courts should assess it—cutting through vague labels like “monopoly power” and…
‘Market Power in Antitrust Cases,’ by William M. Landes and Richard A. Posner
Why Some US Indian Reservations Prosper While Others Struggle
06 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, development economics, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, growth disasters, growth miracles, industrial organisation, labour economics, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice
Our colleague Thomas Stratmann writes about the political economy of Indian reservations in his excellent Substack Rules and Results. Across 123 tribal nations in the lower 48 states, median household income for Native American residents ranges from roughly $20,000 to over $130,000—a sixfold difference. Some reservations have household incomes comparable to middle-class America. Others face persistent…
Why Some US Indian Reservations Prosper While Others Struggle
Why not leave rubbish collection to the private sector?
31 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economics of bureaucracy, environmental economics, industrial organisation, politics - New Zealand, privatisation, Public Choice, urban economics
Radio NZ reports: Auckland Councillors have voted not to proceed with a six-month trial of fortnightly kerbside rubbish collections in parts of the city, after considering public feedback. The proposed trial would’ve halved the number of kerbside collections in Te Atatū, Panmure, Tāmaki, Clendon Park and Weymouth, with the intention of reducing waste to landfill.…
Why not leave rubbish collection to the private sector?
Celebrating Two Years of Libertarian Success in Argentina
27 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, budget deficits, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic growth, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, fiscal policy, growth disasters, history of economic thought, income redistribution, industrial organisation, labour economics, liberalism, libertarianism, macroeconomics, Public Choice, rentseeking, unemployment Tags: Argentina
As explained in my four-part series (here, here, here, and here) and in this clip from a recent interview, Javier Milei’s first two years have been amazingly successful. There are two points in the interview that deserve emphasis. First, Javier Milei’s libertarian policies already have been extremely beneficial for the Argentine economy. Inflation has dramatically […]
Celebrating Two Years of Libertarian Success in Argentina
John Oliver goes after Bari Weiss and CBS News
22 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in industrial organisation, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, television, TV shows Tags: media bias
A reader sent me a video-containing email with the header “John Oliver destroys Bari Weiss”, with the message below saying, “Somebody had to do it.” Well, yes, somebody should criticize the Free Press, which is becoming, in my view, more political (right-centrist) and less full of news. And even news stories aren’t really written by…
John Oliver goes after Bari Weiss and CBS News
Vertical Restraints in the EU: Economics Has Updated, Law Hasn’t Installed the Patch
17 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of regulation, industrial organisation, law and economics Tags: competition law
Online commerce has transformed how firms design their distribution systems, yet EU competition law continues to treat many online-sales restrictions as suspect by default. This tension lies at the heart of today’s vertical restraints debate. While the economic theory of vertical agreements has been largely settled for decades, the legal framework has not fully absorbed…
Vertical Restraints in the EU: Economics Has Updated, Law Hasn’t Installed the Patch
“AI is everywhere but in the productivity statistics…”
15 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economic history, economics of information, entrepreneurship, history of economic thought, industrial organisation Tags: creative destruction
These people are saying it is there too. Though I am not quite sure what they (or anyone, for that matter) mean by AI: First, we argue that AI can already be seen in productivity statistics for the United States. The production and use effects of software and software R&D (alone) contributed (a) 50 percent…
“AI is everywhere but in the productivity statistics…”
Humanity Has a Huge Surplus of Economic Misunderstanding
13 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, international economics, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: free trade, tarrifs
TweetHere’s a letter to AP Fact Check. Editor: Melissa Goldin does a deep dive into the cause(s) of the U.S. “agricultural trade deficit” (“FACT FOCUS: Trump blames Biden for the agricultural trade deficit. It’s not that simple,” December 10). To what extent is this “deficit” caused by the policies of Biden? To what extent is…
Humanity Has a Huge Surplus of Economic Misunderstanding
Evaluating the Sale of Warner Bros Discovery to Netflix from an Antitrust Perspective
09 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of regulation, industrial organisation, market efficiency Tags: competition law
Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has announced that it is selling its major assets to Netflix, including Warner Bros. Pictures (home of Harry Potter), DC Studios, and HBO Max. Netflix was chosen among a group of bidders that also included Paramount and Comcast. This post explores some of the antitrust issues and hurdles that a combined…
Evaluating the Sale of Warner Bros Discovery to Netflix from an Antitrust Perspective
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