By Amy Willis

Health care has been a big topic on EconTalk this year, and this week's episode continues our exploration. This week, host Russ Roberts welcomed physician Marty Makary to talk about his new book, The Price We Pay, in which he describes a wretched system of price gouging, shadow pricing, and predatory pricing and colle...

Econlib Resource EconTalk Podcast Listening Guides Introduction The listening guides listed here are supplements to accompany podcasts on EconTalk. Each guide consists of seven to ten discussion questions encouraging the listener to think broadly about what the podcast is about and to focus more closely on the key...

By George Bittlingmayer

Economic analysis of advertising dates to the 1930s and 1940s, when critics attacked it as a monopolistic and wasteful practice. Defenders soon emerged who argued that advertising promotes competition and lowers the costs of providing information to consumers and distributing goods. Today, most economists side with the...

By David Henderson

If you wore [sic] born and grew up in the U.S., Canada, Australia or any other country considered "developed," there are probably a lot of things you take for granted on a daily basis. Things like clean drinking water, big grocery stores, and even mirrors. But for people who grew up in developing countries and then lef...

By Peter J. Boettke

Armen Alchian (1914-2013) was an economist's economist. How his mind worked and why it so impressed his peers is illustrated perfectly by an episode from his time at the Rand Corporation in the 1950s as the Cold War was ramping up. Both the United States and Soviet nuclear programs were cloaked in secrecy. As the devel...

By John N. Gray

In the recent revival of public and scholarly interest in the values of limited government and the market order, no one has been more centrally significant than Friedrich A. Hayek. His works have figured as a constant point of reference in the discussions both of the libertarian and conservative theories of the market ...

By Nikolai Wenzel

Reveries of a Solitary Walker I confess that I am an atypical tourist. When last in Paris, I eschewed the charred Notre Dame cathedral and the urban oasis of the Luxembourg Gardens. Instead, I headed to the Citéco1 Museum of the Economy. The museum is quite well done, with foundational exhibits on exchange, individua...

By Scott Sumner

There's been a lot of buzz regarding some recent statements by Jay Powell on the possible role of fiscal policy during the next recession: The current low level of interest rates “means that it would be important for fiscal policy to support the economy if it weakens,” he told the House Financial Services Committe...

1848-1923

  Pareto is best known for two concepts that are named after him. The first and most familiar is the concept of Pareto optimality. A Pareto-optimal allocation of resources is achieved when it is not possible to make anyone better off without making someone else worse off. The second is Pareto’s law of i...

Sociologist Susan Mayer of the University of Chicago talks about her book What Money Can't Buy with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Mayer reports on her research which found that giving poor parents money had little measured effect on improving the lives of their children. She emphasizes the importance of accurately unders...