Economics

Books

Encyclopedia

Articles

Archive

EconLog

EconTalk

Topics

Ten Key Ideas

High School

MORE...

Data

Links

Register for Econlib News

Quote of the Day

Birthdays

New Listings

About Econlib

FAQ and Help

Search

RSS feed More feed options

Liberty Fund, Inc.

The Online Library of Liberty (OLL)

The Goodrich Room: Interactive Tour

Don't miss the latest economics podcast, Chris Anderson on Free with host Russ Roberts, and Foreign Investment in the United States, by Mack Ott in the Concise Encyclopedia of Economics.

That Haunting Chilean Model
Ibsen Martinez

Ibsen Martinez revisits the Chilean experience with trade and domestic liberalization. [Read more]

A Trillion Dollar "Catastrophe"?
Anthony de Jasay

Anthony de Jasay talks about the financial fallout in Europe and argues that it is a zero-sum game. [Read more]

Upcoming birthdays and commemorative anniversaries of great economists and others:

Quote of the Day

Arnold Kling and Bryan Caplan on issues and insights in economics

More:

• Latest EconLog Articles
• Recent Comments
• EconLog Archives

Orange Blossom Special: Externalities and the Coase Theorem
by Michael Munger

Some economists have alleged that bee-keepers and orchard owners will cause the market to fail by not taking into account the effect of each side’s activity on the other. But Michal Munger points out that if economists can see a potential problem, then bee-keepers and orchard owners are smart enough to see it too. And, he points out, they do. Thus a problem that a famous economist made up is just that: made up.

Oil Prices
by Robert P. Murphy

Because oil is a finite resource, the free market won't do a good job of allocating it over time and we need government regulation to "fix" that problem, right? Actually, dead wrong. In this month's feature essay, Robert P. Murphy of Pacific Research Institute shows that it is precisely because owners of oil want to maximize their profits that oil gets allocated efficiently. He also shows how government regulation can mess that up.

Incentives, Incentives, Incentives
by Allen Sanderson

Monetary incentives are very powerful. They encourage us to do more of some things and less of others. In this month's feature essay, Allen Sanderson of the University of Chicago takes a look at how effective incentives are in private markets and how rarely they are used in the design of public policy and in motivating politicians to do a good job.

Recent economics books available

• In print, CD, DVD from the Liberty Fund Book Catalog
• Online from Econlib Books
• Downloadable (pdf, etc.) from OLL Books

Register for Econlib News for monthly email announcements of new material.

The Library of Economics and Liberty features educational resources for the study of economics. Materials include

• Over 100 classic and modern online books and essays on economics, by authors including Adam Smith, James M. Buchanan, Frédéric Bastiat, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich A. Hayek, Frank Knight, David Ricardo, Frederic Bastiat, Jeremy Bentham, Alfred Marshall, and more.
• The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics, David R. Henderson, ed., an encyclopedia containing articles by over 100 economists, plus biographies of over 80 famous economists.
• Monthly economics articles by professors and thinkers, including frequent contributions by Mike Munger, Fred McChesney, and articles by David Levy and Sandra Peart on the origins of the term "the dismal science" and the history of economic thought.
• An economics blog, EconLog, with co-bloggers Bryan Caplan and Arnold Kling, on topics ranging from free trade to immigration to the influence of economic thought on films, comics, and novels.
• A weekly economics podcast, EconTalk, with host Russell Roberts, including book reviews and educational discussions on economics, political economy, political science, and markets, featuring interviews with Nobel Laureates, authors, and business leaders.
• Monthly columns on economic topics of interest outside the United States by Anthony de Jasay and Ibsen Martinez.
• Fully searchable free resources for students and teachers at all education levels, including high school, college, graduate school, home-schoolers, post-graduate self-education. Resources are chosen to appeal to a variety of interests, from academic research to casual curiosity.

All Econlib resources are provided free of charge for online use by Liberty Fund, Inc. See About the Library of Economics and Liberty for more detail about Econlib.