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Bryan Caplan: April 2012
An Author Archive by Month (26 entries)
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April 29, 2012
Economic Philosophy
Bryan Caplan
Jason Brennan replies to the critics of bleeding-heart libertarianism, most notably David Friedman. David feels like he's nailing jelly to a wall:My complaint about the BHL, as may be obvious from the exchanges now going on, is that they insist... MORE
April 28, 2012
Behavioral Economics and Rationality
Bryan Caplan
Thanks to the half dozen people who sent me copies of Cowen's "Does Technology Drive the Growth of Government?" The paper's even better than I remember. Highlights:The puzzle, courtesy of the great Tullock:I start with what Gordon Tullock (1994) has... MORE
April 27, 2012
Books: Reviews and Suggested Readings
Bryan Caplan
"Does Technology Drive the Growth of Government?" is one of my favorite Tyler Cowen papers. It's on my graduate Public Choice syllabus. Unfortunately, it has strangely disappeared from the Internet - and Tyler himself can't easily locate the paper. If... MORE
April 26, 2012
Economic Philosophy
Bryan Caplan
Todd Seavey's awfully unhappy about the rise of bleeding-heart libertarianism. He begins by describing his recent experience with bleeding-heart non-libertarians:I saw a lecture by (charming, charismatic, funny) Brown professor of Africana studies Tricia Rose last night, and it was a... MORE
April 25, 2012
Economic Philosophy
Bryan Caplan
I think Will Wilkinson failed to understand Matt Zwolinski's argument about the significance of the miniscule level of voluntary donations to the U.S. government. But this is also an ideal time to defend a related, underrated argument. I call it... MORE
April 24, 2012
Economic History
Bryan Caplan
Matt Yglesias amusingly mocked Calvin Coolidge's note cards in this video, but the actual speech is remarkable. The President of the United States sounds only two or three steps short of Lysander Spooner:Taxes take from everyone a part of his... MORE
Economic Philosophy
Bryan Caplan
My new baby has delayed my intended post on the Matt Zwolinski-Will Wilkinson debate, but late is better than never. Matt kicked it off:[W]hile government is, in principle, able to do some good, there are very often (almost always?) superior... MORE
April 21, 2012
Family Economics
Bryan Caplan
Valeria Jacqueline Caplan, my first daughter, my fourth child, was born one day early yesterday. Baby and mother are both doing very well. As usual, I welcome my child's birth with a reading from the book of Julian Simon:One spring... MORE
April 20, 2012
Family Economics
Bryan Caplan
The great Epicurus:Yet much worse still is the man who says it is good not to be born, but "once born make haste to pass the gates of Death." [Theognis, 427] For if he says this from conviction why does... MORE
April 19, 2012
Economic Philosophy
Bryan Caplan
Today I appeared on Anthony Brooks' NPR show to discuss the ethics of having kids (audio now up). Philosopher Christine Overall, my sparring partner, emphasized that having a child is "ethically risky." Who knows what this child's life will be... MORE
April 18, 2012
Economic Philosophy
Bryan Caplan
To repeat:The "Catholic" approach has extremely high moral standards (e.g. Be celibate; give everything you have to the poor; love everyone), but enforces them loosely.The "Protestant" approach has moderate moral standards (e.g. Don't commit adultery; prudently give to the deserving... MORE
April 17, 2012
Economic Philosophy
Bryan Caplan
I've often heard people distinguish between two distinct ethical outlooks. They usually call them the "Catholic" approach and the "Protestant" approach, but the distinction has little to do with theology. Instead:The "Catholic" approach has extremely high moral standards (e.g. Be... MORE
April 16, 2012
Economics and Culture
Bryan Caplan
How successful does someone have to be before he starts bragging, "I never finished college" or "I never went to college?" Gates and Zuckerberg are clearly there. How much lower down the ladder of success must you go before such... MORE
Economics of Education
Bryan Caplan
Tyler wants to use my little signaling model to predict the future of online education. At risk of looking a gift horse in the mouth, I'm afraid a much richer model is required to address Tyler's question. In the interest... MORE
April 13, 2012
Behavioral Economics and Rationality
Bryan Caplan
In my defense of labels, I claimed that, "Will's implicit label is "label-avoidism." Adam Ozimek at Modeled Behavior explains the unique intellectual dangers of this label:[T]o define oneself as, for example, "of no party or clique", as Andrew Sullivan does,... MORE
Economics of Education
Bryan Caplan
Eli has a good comment on my signaling model with changing intellectual ability: The math seems right, but I don't understand why you would assume that K is constant. It should be an increasing function of A, no? My intuition... MORE
April 12, 2012
Economics of Education
Bryan Caplan
Workers in some countries are a lot more productive than workers in other countries. One of the main differences is that people in more productive countries have more education. When we hear that education in a country is going up,... MORE
April 11, 2012
Economic Philosophy
Bryan Caplan
Will Wilkinson replies to my defense of labels against his attack:Bryan has sort of wrongly inferred that my aversion to specifically political labels flows from a much more general aversion to naming one's convictions. At the limit, Bryan makes it... MORE
Behavioral Economics and Rationality
Bryan Caplan
I never heard of John Derbyshire until a few days ago, but The Nation's inventory of his earlier controversies got my attention. The most interesting: The Nation accuses Derbyshire of "defending Mel Gibson's racist comments." A more accurate summary is... MORE
April 10, 2012
Politics and Economics
Bryan Caplan
A tempting speculation: The Supreme Court's vote on Obamacare will have larger effects on policy than the American public's vote on the presidency. My thinking: If Obama wins, there will be divided government, and if Romney wins, he'll be too... MORE
Economic Philosophy
Bryan Caplan
This month's Cato Unbound discusses Matt Zwolinski and John Tomasi's "Bleeding Heart History of Libertarianism." David Friedman's response is good enough to make me see utilitarianism in a more favorable light. Friedman agrees with Zwolinski and Tomasi that pre-20th-century libertarians... MORE
April 9, 2012
Behavioral Economics and Rationality
Bryan Caplan
I'm a libertarian, a natalist, an atheist, a credentialist, an economist, an optimist, a behavioral economist, an elitist, a public choicer, a dualist, a Szaszian, a moral realist, an anti-communist, a pacifist, a hereditarian, a Masonomist, a moral intuitionist, a... MORE
April 4, 2012
Family Economics
Bryan Caplan
Elizabeth Kolbert has a fun piece on the ethics of fertility, featuring Christine Overall, David Benatar, and me.Kolbert on Overall:Of course, people do give reasons for having children, and Overall takes them up one by one. Consider the claim that... MORE
Economic Philosophy
Bryan Caplan
When they teach their subject, economists almost always start with microeconomics. Why? Because it's easier to reach clear-cut answers when you start small. Once you know what you're talking about, you can build on it. When economists can't give their... MORE
April 3, 2012
Economic Philosophy
Bryan Caplan
I've been having an extended Twitter discussion about the history of women's liberty with Cato's Jason Kuznicki (@JasonKuznicki), the Atlantic's Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo), and others. I find some of the issues hard to address in 140 characters, so I'm moving... MORE
April 2, 2012
Economic Philosophy
Bryan Caplan
The end of the draft is arguably the greatest policy success of libertarian economics. Libertarians still have plenty of complaints about the U.S. military. But libertarian complaints about the way the military treats its manpower have virtually ceased. It's an... MORE
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