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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani recently caused something of an uproar when he contrasted the “the frigidity of rugged individualism” with the “warmth of collectivism.” This framing echoes the familiar criticism that capitalism forces people to go it alone as “atomistic individuals.” The thought goes like this: markets do real damage to the social .. MORE
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Sports Economics
If you wanted to bet on the Super Bowl this past weekend, you had options. You may have bet with a friend. If you live in a state where it’s legal, you could have gone to a casino or used a casino’s app. Or, starting last year, you could have entered into an event contract .. MORE
International Trade
In my recent post on US manufacturing jobs and tariffs, I mentioned a Wall Street Journal article that pointed toward American tariffs having little impact on Chinese exports; the exports are simply being shifted to other countries. In the earlier post, I discussed what that fact meant for US manufacturing jobs. Here, I discuss what .. MORE
Price Theory
This is the latest in our series of posts in our series on price theory problems with Professor Bryan Cutsinger. You can see all of Cutsinger’s problems and solutions by subscribing to his EconLog RSS feed. Share your proposed solutions in the comments. Professor Cutsinger will be present in the comments for the next couple .. MORE
Sam's Links
Sam works on innovation policy at Progress Ireland, an independent policy think tank in Dublin, and runs a publication called The Fitzwilliam. Most relevant to us, on his personal blog, he writes a popular link roundup; what follows is an abridged version of his Links for December. Blogs and short links 1. I’ve finished my .. MORE
Price Theory
Question: Is the following true or false? Explain your reasoning. If the quantity of higher education services supplied does not rise with the price of those services, i.e., if supply is perfectly inelastic, then subsidizing the demand for higher education services will primarily benefit universities and their employees. Solution: I use this question in my .. MORE
Competition
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani recently caused something of an uproar when he contrasted the “the frigidity of rugged individualism” with the “warmth of collectivism.” This framing echoes the familiar criticism that capitalism forces people to go it alone as “atomistic individuals.” The thought goes like this: markets do real damage to the social .. MORE
Economic and Political Philosophy
The newest season of the Netflix documentary America’s Sweethearts, which traces the 2024 audition, training, and performance season of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, is a lot more than just a pretty face. The philosopher Loren Lomasky has argued persuasively in Persons, Rights, and the Moral Community that one of the things that makes humans human .. MORE
Economic Theory
All major American professional sports have a time of year when they capture the eyes of the nation. America’s pastime, baseball, has the ‘Fall Classic’, the NFL dominates Thanksgiving, and the country has an entire weekend dedicated to the Super Bowl. Christmas Day is the NBA’s time to shine with action from noon to midnight .. MORE
Family Economics
Occasionally, I use a grocery delivery service—not always, and not for every item. In a vacuum, one might think that having someone else take the time to gather grocery items for me and bring those items to my house seems clearly advantageous. So why don’t I always use this service? A few ideas from economics .. MORE
How much development should be allowed on the Yellowstone River? Is oil being used too quickly? Is the strip mining of coal properly controlled?… [From the text]
Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850) was a French economist, statesman, and author. He led the free-trade movement in France from its inception in 1840 until his untimely death in 1850. The first 45 years of his life were spent in preparation for five tremendously productive years writing in favor of freedom. Bastiat was the founder of the .. MORE
A Book Review of Everything I Ever Needed to Know About Economics I Learned from Online Dating, by Paul Oyer.1 Match.com, eHarmony, and OkCupid, it turns out, are no different from eBay or Monster.com. On all these sites, people come together trying to find matches. —Paul Oyer, Everything I Ever Needed to Know About .. MORE
Many people who are not economists think that when we economists analyze people’s choices, we assume that “it’s all about the money.” They’re wrong. First, even when we say that money is important, as we often do, it’s not really about the money that you hold in your hand or your bank account. It’s about .. MORE
Oh, we do indeed compete with others to buy that coffee, they're ahead of us in the line. Doing things that way involves less hassle than, oh, creating a market for trading spaces in the..
Stephen Karlson, February 2