I’m reviewing Adam Smith and Bruce Yandle’s Bootleggers and Baptists for the Independent Review. It’s a powerful explanatory framework that helps us understand why we get resource-wasting public policies. Here are a few resources on the idea:

1. Bruce Yandle’s original article.

2. Bruce Yandle on EconTalk.

3. The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics entry on Regulation.

4. A LearnLiberty video in which Yandle explains “Bootleggers and Baptists” (disclosure: I’ve been paid to be in LearnLiberty videos; they don’t pay me to blog about them).