Growth, Theory of Markets, Microeconomics, Price Theory and Applications, Theory of the Firm/Business, Capitalism
Article
Friedrich Hayek Philosopher-economist Friedrich Hayek remains profoundly relevant, even three decades after his death in 1992 at the age of 92. Hayek received the 1974 Nobel Prize in economics for having advanced a simple but seemingly paradoxical theme: civil society as we know it emerged from “human action” but not from “human design.”1 This is .. MORE
Article
John Locke Bacon, Locke, and Newton—I consider them the three greatest men who have ever lived, without any exception. —Thomas Jefferson, 1789 Many people forget that John Locke was a physician, and many who know that he was a physician presume that his life-long practice of medicine exerted very little influence over his work as .. MORE
Article
California (and much of the West) is in the midst of its worst multi-decade drought in maybe a millennium. Los Angeles has received only a fifth of its normal near-desert-level rainfall this year. Indeed, LA’s rainfall to date in 2022 is just under the normal precipitation for the driest place in North America, Death Valley, .. MORE
Central Planning
Microeconomics
Book Review
Economic Growth
Government Growth
Books: Reviews and Suggested Readings
Law and Economics
econtalk-podcast
As Israel turns 75, has it fulfilled the promise of its founders? Daniel Gordis of Shalem College talks about his book, Impossible Takes Longer, with EconTalk’s Russ Roberts looking at the successes and failures of Israel. Topics discussed include the history of Zionism, the plight of the Palestinians, the Jewishness of the Jewish state, and .. MORE
econtalk-podcast
In honor of EconTalk’s 1,000th episode, host Russ Roberts reflects on his long, strange journey from pioneer of the podcast format to weekly interviewer of leading economists, authors, and thinkers. Hear him answer your–and Chat GPT’s–questions about why he got started, how he preps, and how he picks guests. He also explains why debate gave .. MORE
Law and Economics
Despite Ronald Coase’s many contributions to economics, he is most famous for the co-called Coase Theorem, which is just one small part of his paper The Problem of Social Cost. Simply put, in a world of sufficiently low transaction costs, property rights, institutions, and the law don’t matter. If rights are assigned randomly, the result .. MORE
Economic Education
Question: One common argument against public assistance taking the form of direct cash handouts is that the recipients will use the money to buy things that taxpayers find objectionable, e.g., illicit drugs, gambling, etc. To avoid this outcome, the argument goes, public assistance should take the form of in-kind transfers, e.g., food, housing, medical care, .. MORE
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You face a choice. You must now decide whether to read this Preface, to read something else, to think silent thoughts, or perhaps to write a bit for yourself. The value that you place on the most attractive of these several alternatives is the cost that you must pay if you choose to read this .. MORE
Book Review of What We Owe the Future, by William MacAskill.1 An issue that has long divided scholars is the question of how much weight to give to the interests of future generations, especially when making decisions of significant public importance. On one side of this issue there have been those like the University of .. MORE
A Book Review of The Great Reversal: How America Gave Up on Free Markets, by Thomas Philippon.1 The Great Reversal defends a provocative and surprising thesis: the United States has given up on free markets while Europe has embraced them. As a result, Europeans pay less and get more in a lot of industries, like .. MORE
VIDEO
Gary Becker (1930-2014) was one of the most original and pathbreaking economists of modern times. His 1992 Nobel laureate in Economic Sciences was described as his “having extended the domain of microeconomic analysis to a wide range of human behaviour and interaction, including nonmarket behavior.” Becker’s early work on discrimination led to his further work .. MORE
VIDEO
Anthony de Jasay, a regular columnist for Econlib, was one of the most original and independent thinkers on the relationship between the individual and the state. Through his published works, he challenged the reigning paradigms justifying modern democratic growth. His deeply challenging theoretical works include The State, an analysis that views the state as acting .. MORE
Econlib Videos
Conversations with some of the most original thinkers of our time
The Reading Lists by Topic pages contain some suggested readings organized by topic, including materials available on Econlib. Brief reviews or descriptions are included for many items.
Supplementary materials for popular college textbooks used in courses in the Principles of Economics, Microeconomics, Price Theory, and Macroeconomics are suggested by topic.
These free resources are appropriate for teachers of high school and AP economics, social studies, and history classes. They are also appropriate for interested students, home schoolers, and newcomers to the topic of economics.
[Editor’s note: some of the data have changed since this article was written in 1992. The overall structure of the unemployment insurance, however, has remained intact.] The United States unemployment insurance program is intended to offset income lost by workers who lose their jobs as a result of employer cutbacks. The program, launched by .. MORE
Gross output (GO) is a relatively new macroeconomic statistic that measures total economic activity. Gross domestic product (GDP)—the other major measure of economic activity—accounts only for final goods and services. However, GO’s scope includes both final output as well as intermediate inputs at all earlier stages of production. Therefore, GO is a much more comprehensive measure .. MORE
Is capitalism good? Should we admire hard workers who are motivated to make large profits? Does competition bring out the best in people? These questions juxtapose practices and institutions that economists study (capitalism, profits, competition) with concepts that ethicists use (good, admirable, best). Ethics studies values and virtues. A value is a good to be .. MORE
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