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Public Choice Theory
A Category Archive (46 entries)
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November 10, 2008
Public Choice Theory
David Henderson
One of the more interesting economist bloggers on the left side of the spectrum is Dean Baker. He had an interesting post the other day. (Hat tip to Sheldon Richman.) Baker wrote: The [Washington] Post tells us how the people... MORE
July 24, 2008
Public Choice Theory
Arnold Kling
Megan McArdle writes, Instead of moving to put FM/FM into a more easily understood model--either nationalizing them, or privatising--they're making the GSEs even weirder, and of course, piling on more debt...keeping pet companies on a leash so that you can... MORE
July 22, 2008
Public Choice Theory
Bryan Caplan
If you want to learn more about public choice, why not fill out an application for the 2008 Public Choice Outreach Seminar? It's normally in the summer, but this year it's October 9-11. It's a great chance to sample the... MORE
May 11, 2008
Public Choice Theory
Arnold Kling
The Boston Globe editorializes amendment to the House budget calls for a study of a 2.5 percent assessment each year on university endowments over $1 billion. The tax would affect nine of them, and in theory could generate an enormous... MORE
August 29, 2007
Public Choice Theory
Bryan Caplan
From my former student Jeremy Horpedahl:Lists of elections decided by one vote are often circulated in the popular press and by government election officials (interestingly, often directed at children). Most of the commonly cited examples are either completely wrong or... MORE
April 20, 2007
Public Choice Theory
Bryan Caplan
Get your applications in for the 2007 Public Choice Outreach Seminar, July 12-15. Both faculty and students are excellent, and you'll get to meet many of your favorite bloggers. Apply now!... MORE
March 12, 2007
Public Choice Theory
Arnold Kling
John Fund writes, In their favor-seeking, all of the lobbyists visiting Capitol Hill are bound by House and Senate ethics rules that cap most individual gifts at $50 per elected official or staffer, with an annual limit of $100 per... MORE
March 4, 2007
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
The Wall Street Journal writes, The emerging alliance of business and environmental special interests may well prove powerful enough to give us cap-and-trade in CO2. It would make Hollywood elites feel virtuous, and it would make money for some very... MORE
July 20, 2006
Public Choice Theory
Eric Crampton
Deadwood is the best television series I've seen. I'm a big fan of Joss Whedon's work, but this surpasses it. Read Mancur Olson on stationary and roving bandits, then read some Tullock, then watch the show. Al Swearengen, who owns... MORE
May 2, 2006
Public Choice Theory
Bryan Caplan
The deadline for George Mason University's famous Public Choice Outreach Seminar, July 6-9, has been extended to May 19. Attendees get $250 toward travel expenses, room and board, and the chance to listen to many of the leading scholars in... MORE
March 20, 2006
Public Choice Theory
Arnold Kling
Andrew Samwick quotes a New York Times story on how Congress is "improving" the private pension system. Someone must pay for this. Currently, the pension agency finances itself in part through the insurance premiums that companies are required to pay... MORE
March 2, 2006
Public Choice Theory
Arnold Kling
Alan B. Krueger reports on Morris M. Kleiner's research on occupational licensing. He provides much evidence that the balance of occupational licensing has shifted away from protecting consumers and toward limiting the supply of workers in various professions. A result... MORE
February 27, 2006
Public Choice Theory
Arnold Kling
Minxin Pei writes, The Chinese state remains deeply entrenched in the economy. According to official data for 2003, the state directly accounted for 38 percent of the country’s GDP and employed 85 million people (about one third of the urban... MORE
February 6, 2006
Public Choice Theory
Arnold Kling
In a long article filled with details, Fred S. McChesney writes Lobbyists are free to petition government on behalf of clients. Indeed, the process is protected by the First Amendment. Accepting money for the exercise of one's First Amendment rights... MORE
January 17, 2006
Public Choice Theory
Arnold Kling
I have started a new series of essays about the assumptions made by (modern) liberals. The first one says, Liberals see the market as an arena in which evil corporations inflict their greed on innocent victims. I wish you would... MORE
January 4, 2006
Public Choice Theory
Arnold Kling
The front page of today's Washington Post has two stories on corruption. The main story is a stereotypical "one evil man" story on Jack Abramoff. The other story, on Maryland funeral law, probably explains everyday corruption more clearly. Maryland's leading... MORE
January 3, 2006
Public Choice Theory
Arnold Kling
From my latest essay: The mainstream approach treated economic behavior and political behavior completely differently. We viewed economic phenomena, such as a price change, as determined by an entire system. We took political decisions as arising from personal whim. We... MORE
December 7, 2005
Public Choice Theory
Arnold Kling
Rushing in where angels fear to tread, I thought I would apply the theory of the Corruption Trap to Iraq. Bribing an official to get something done is like paying ransom to a kidnapper -- what looks like a good... MORE
December 5, 2005
Public Choice Theory
Arnold Kling
James Buchanan discusses three ideas for Constitutional amendments. He proposes an amendment to require balancing the Budget, and amendment forcing laws to be nondiscriminatory, and an amendment against regulating voluntary market transactions. On the nondiscrimination issue, he writes, The American... MORE
November 28, 2005
Public Choice Theory
Arnold Kling
There are several gems in the latest Milken Institute Review. On the topic of bank regulation, James Barth, Gerard Caprio and Ross Levine give an excellent generic description of how the public-choice view of government differs from the assumptions that... MORE
October 30, 2005
Public Choice Theory
Arnold Kling
Roger Lowenstein writes The drawback to 401(k)'s, remember, is that people are imperfect savers. They don't save enough, they don't invest wisely what they do save and they don't know what to do with their money once they are free... MORE
October 25, 2005
Fiscal Policy
Arnold Kling
From my latest essay: The two viewpoints might be summarized as follows: --Conservatives: Cutting taxes will help reduce the size of government. --Liberals: Big government is not really so bad. In the face of overwhelming evidence over the past five... MORE
October 19, 2005
Public Choice Theory
Arnold Kling
The New York Times reports In recent years, the difficulty of getting things built has made business harder for small, local builders and easier for big companies, with their greater resources, to gain control of the housing market. "The large... MORE
October 16, 2005
Economics of Health Care
Arnold Kling
Morris M. Kleiner writes, Even in the 1950s, licensing covered less than 5% of the American workforce. Now more than 20% of the U.S. workforce is covered by state licensing laws...prices in regulated occupations have increased more--and the earnings of... MORE
October 5, 2005
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Anthony de Jasay writes, Some miracle of an unexpected kind will very likely occur one day to make some renewable energy source economical, but until it does, responsible oil companies will make haste slowly toward biomass, solar or wind power... MORE
September 8, 2005
Public Choice Theory
Arnold Kling
This piece by Brad DeLong helps illuminate his world view. After giving a litany of Katrina-related institutional failures at the local, state, and Federal level, he concludes we should be surprised. Fema is a bureaucracy. A bureaucracy is designed to... MORE
September 1, 2005
Public Choice Theory
Arnold Kling
Lee Harris writes, To me, the looting came as no surprise: it was a completely natural phenomenon. It was exactly what my own theory of the social order would have predicted. What else should you expect when a civilized order... MORE
August 15, 2005
Public Choice Theory
Arnold Kling
In this essay, I argue that mass democracy reduces the quality of government. In 1790, the largest state in the union, Virginia, had a population of under 700,000. Today, Montgomery County has a population of over 900,000. Our nine-member County... MORE
August 2, 2005
Regulation and Subsidies
Arnold Kling
David R. Henderson writes, The best statement of the philosophical case against antitrust is in philosopher Harry Binswanger's essay, "Antitrust: 'Free Competition' at Gunpoint." Binswanger draws a fundamental distinction between economic power and political power. Economic power, he notes, is... MORE
May 7, 2005
Public Choice Theory
Bryan Caplan
Here's a great passage in Sin City: The Hard Goodbye that didn't make the movie: In this town just about anything you can name that's worth doing is against the law. It works out better for everybody this way. Cops... MORE
August 14, 2004
Public Choice Theory
Michael Munger
by Michael Munger Guest Blogger Economist Ray Fair's very simple model on presidential elections has some interesting things to say about the upcoming election. Given the macro-economic and macro-political factors that have mattered in the past, George W. Bush should... MORE
July 18, 2004
Public Choice Theory
Arnold Kling
Edward Lotterman talks about Ricardian rent and rent-seeking. The U.S. government subsidizes cotton production to the tune of some $3 billion per year. Virtually all the subsidy flows to fewer than 30,000 cotton farmers. At some $100,000 per producer, cotton... MORE
April 16, 2004
Public Goods
Arnold Kling
My latest essay is on these topics. There are three layers to the argument against paternalism. The first layer is purely libertarian, which says that government compulsion of individuals is always wrong. The second layer is utilitarian, which says that,... MORE
March 29, 2004
Growth: Causal Factors
Arnold Kling
Andrew David Chamberlain points to a World Bank study written by Andrei Shleifer, among others, of barriers to entrepreneurship. Countries with heavier regulation of entry have higher corruption and larger unofficial economies, but not better quality of public or private... MORE
December 4, 2003
International Trade
Arnold Kling
In this essay, I say that libertarians had a bad month in November. Howard Dean came out in favor of re-regulation of "utilities, large media companies and any business that offers stock options." As Megan McArdle put it, "those of... MORE
October 21, 2003
Regulation and Subsidies
Arnold Kling
Michael Cox writes about trade barriers that affect Internet commerce. Georgia requires buyers to purchase contact lenses in person, ostensibly to protect their health but in effect as a boost to in-state eyewear retailers. Oklahoma won't allow its citizens to... MORE
June 16, 2003
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Lynne Kiesling points to this article by Joel Schwartz on the ethanol mandate. what if our elected officials ... forced you to pay $180 more each year for gasoline that contains an antiquated additive you don't need, and that could... MORE
June 4, 2003
Fiscal Policy
Arnold Kling
Recently, Kevin Drum issued this challenge to those who claim to prefer lower government spending. Let's hear what you want to cut. And remember, for bonus points you have to include some programs that you yourself benefit from. I was... MORE
May 28, 2003
Regulation and Subsidies
Arnold Kling
Two recent columns concerning the regulation of Internet commerce show how regulation sometimes restricts competition at the expense of the consumer. The Wall Street Journal argues that state regulations prevent consumers from obtaining health insurance that otherwise would be available... MORE
May 19, 2003
Supply-side Economics
Arnold Kling
Was the stock market boom good for New York? Not according to Megan McArdle, otherwise known as 'Jane Galt'. in an era of prosperity, city spending grew an astonishing $5.6 billion, or 25% - right up to the capacity of... MORE
May 16, 2003
Fiscal Policy
Arnold Kling
Jacob Levy criticizes the Senate's proposed temporary tax cut on dividends. The arguments in favor of repealing the dividend tax have to do with removing distortions from the capital markets and from the incentives faced by corporations, and with improving... MORE
May 9, 2003
Supply-side Economics
Arnold Kling
One fascinating phenomenon is that when government grows so large and its interest groups so powerful, it threatens to crowd out the private sector. This is a concern in Israel, where a new economic plan that tries to limit government... MORE
April 8, 2003
Information Goods, Intellectual Property
Arnold Kling
In 1998, Congress extended copyright terms on both new and existing works. Lawrence Lessig tried unsuccessfully to have this extension overturned by the Supreme Court. In this interview, Lessig explains the weakness of the economic argument for the copyright extension.... MORE
March 19, 2003
Public Choice Theory
Arnold Kling
There were several interesting comments under the thread of Public Transit and Public Choice. Bernard Yomtov wrote, Liberals do believe the market fails sometimes. This is hardly a radical position. It is almost universally accepted except among market-worshippers who seem... MORE
March 13, 2003
Public Choice Theory
Arnold Kling
Here is Public Choice theory boiled down to three sentences, by'Jane Galt'. The liberal mantra is that the market fails. The free market mantra is that government fails worse. And I think the weight of empirical evidence is on our... MORE
February 4, 2003
Public Choice Theory
Arnold Kling
The New York Times' Daniel Altman describes the state of the income tax code. Washington managed to hack through much of the underbrush of the tax code in an overhaul that President Ronald Reagan signed into law in 1986. But... MORE
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