EconLog Archive
Labor Market
The Deportation Labor Shock
Mass deportation is often framed as a pro‑worker policy. Remove unauthorized immigrants, the argument goes, and native wages will rise as labor supply contracts. This logic is intuitive, politically potent, and economically incomplete. Mass deportation is a massive market intervention. When examined through the lens of labor markets, production complementarities, and historical evidence, mass deportation .. MORE
Regulation
Marginal Returns of Regulation
On this post by Kevin Corcoran, frequent commentator Steve writes: “Is there a health care system in the world that would be regarded as first world quality that does not have health care heavily regulated? Is it just a coincidence that in the countries where health care is not heavily regulated that health care is .. MORE
Property Rights
Everyone Take Copies
I have a new working paper with Bart Wilson titled: “You Wouldn’t Steal a Car: Moral Intuition for Intellectual Property.” The title of this post, “everyone take copies,” comes from a conversation between the human subjects in an experiment in our lab, on which the paper is based. The experiment was studying how and when .. MORE
Competition
What is Competition?
Economists extol the importance of competition in markets for driving prices down and quality up. But what is “competition” and how does it actually work? To non-economists, the word conjures the idea of something like a sporting contest, where there can be one winner while everyone else loses. But this comparison fails on at least .. MORE
Education
AI and the Art of Judgment
A New York magazine article titled “Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College” made the rounds in mid-2025. I think about it often, and especially when I get targeted ads that are basically variations on “if you use our AI tool, you’ll be able to cheat without getting caught.” Suffice it to say it’s dispiriting. .. MORE
Economic Institutions
Avoiding the Resource Trap in Post-Maduro Venezuela
The recent removal of Nicolás Maduro from Venezuela’s presidency is a dramatic development after more than two decades of socialist experimentation under Hugo Chávez and Maduro, characterized by expropriation, macroeconomic mismanagement, and political repression. Although there is much uncertainty about the economic and political future of Venezuela, economics can offer some guidance—and warnings. One such .. MORE
Price Theory
EconLog Price Theory: The Price of Education
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
#ReadWithMe
Wading into Controversy
It is time to explore the principles on which human nature has been constructed and the social structures that are derived from behaviors embedded in the human genome. —Nicholas Wade, The Origin of Politics (46) Nicholas Wade is concerned that we are attempting to establish cultural norms and political structures that stray too far from .. MORE
Economic Theory
Accounting vs. Economic Profit
In any principles of economics class, students learn the difference between accounting profit and economic profit. Accounting profit, which is what one typically understands when discussing “profit,” is total revenue minus your monetary costs. It is what appears on the bottom line of an accounting statement as “profit.” Economic profit is a broader term. Recall .. MORE
Political Economy
Cuba After Communism
On January 1, 1959, Fidel Castro and his bearded revolutionaries marched into Havana. Church bells rang across the island as Batista fled into exile. This January 1st marked the 67th anniversary of that revolution. Sixty-seven years of a system built on deception, imposed through violence, and sustained through repression. But now, for the first time .. MORE
Price Theory
Cutsinger’s Solution: Inflation and Healthcare
Question: Over the past several decades, the inflation-adjusted price of healthcare has increased. Based on this information alone, can you infer the source of the higher price–lower supply or higher demand? If not, what additional data would you need to determine whether higher prices are being driven by changes in supply or demand? Solution: I .. MORE
Economic Theory
Peace on Earth, Goodwill Towards Refs
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
Microeconomics
Silver and Gold
With the holidays upon us, what could be better than Christmas movies? And Christmas songs? And Christmas movies with great Christmas songs, like “Silver and Gold” as sung by Burl Ives in Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer? And of course, there’s the profit-seeking entrepreneur-prospector, Yukon Cornelius, obsessed with finding silver and gold. If silver and gold .. MORE
Microeconomics
The Fast Fashion Dilemma
Shoppers are filling their carts, both literally and digitally, with last-minute gifts. One tempting purchase, whether for gifting or for showing up in style at a holiday sweater party, is ultra-cheap clothing from Shein. Like many around the world, the French hunt for deals in December. During a recent interview with journalist Thomas Mahler, I .. MORE
Tariffs
Diving into Tariffs at Liberty Fund Today
From the editors: We have an in-depth discussion about tariffs across two Liberty Fund sites today. EconLog contributor David Hebert has a piece on the consequences of America’s new, more protectionist trade policies on our sister site, Law and Liberty, this morning. This piece makes a good complement to today’s EconLog post by Jon Murphy, .. MORE
Tariffs
No Manufacturing Jolt from Tariffs
Writing on Facebook, AEI economist Mark Perry points to evidence that the tariffs imposed in April by the Trump Administration have not resulted in job creation for the manufacturing industry (Mark’s graph is recreated below for those of you who do not have access to Facebook. The solid red line indicates the day the tariffs .. MORE
Reading List
Sam’s Links: Holiday Edition
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 November. Blogs and short links 1. Is Google search .. MORE
Price Theory
EconLog Price Theory: Inflation and Healthcare
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 of .. MORE
Economic Theory
Housing: Supply vs. Quantity
If there’s one thing we can count on in America, it’s that our elected officials will see an affordability crisis and respond to it by stimulating the demand side of the market. Today, we’re seeing this in the case of the housing industry, with Administration officials floating both a new (and improved!) 50-year mortgage and .. MORE
Economic Theory
Increasing Housing Supply
Modular housing is gaining prominence as a proposed way to increase the housing supply. This is an approach where the majority of home building is done off-site. Factories will construct entire rooms of a house, including all the wiring and plumbing connections built in. At the final construction site, the actual building process consists of .. MORE
Regulation
Barriers to Affordable Housing
A recent post argued that housing affordability is not so bad as it might appear when home prices are adjusted for all relevant factors, such as size, quality, and household income growth. While houses have become more expensive in dollars, they are also significantly bigger and nicer, and the average household has significantly more income. .. MORE