All Posts Tagged With: "incentives"
Two Kinds of Government Failure
One emphasizes incentive problems, the other knowledge problems.
24Jan2012 | Sandy Ikeda | 2 comments | ContinuedDisaster Response Restores Confidence in Government?
In a memorable episode of the cult-classic cartoon series “The Tick,” the title character is seen in the local café regaling fellow superheroes with his latest adventure, in which he single-handedly stopped an alien plot that would have sucked the earth into a black hole. Skeptical, one of the other heroes responds, “Can you prove [...]
4Jan2012 | Tyler Watts | 0 comments | ContinuedLibertarianism, from A to Z
Harvard University economist Jeffrey Miron’s primer on libertarian thought proceeds just as the title indicates: a collection of alphabetically arranged short essays on 105 topics. This is a more effective technique than one might imagine: Since many people unfamiliar with libertarianism approach it by way of specific questions and challenges, Miron provides answers. Readers of [...]
4Jan2012 | Aeon J. Skoble | 3 comments | ContinuedThe Politically Incorrect Guide to Socialism
What do the following have in common: hungry Venezuelans, starving North Koreans, ecological devastation in the former Soviet Union, and functionally illiterate students in Washington, D.C., high schools? Give up? They are all consequences of socialism. In his book The Politically Incorrect Guide to Socialism, economics professor and National Review editor Kevin Williamson gives the [...]
4Jan2012 | George C. Leef | 4 comments | ContinuedDangerous Political Naifs
Being well past the age of 50 and having spent nearly all my adult life as an academic economist, I seize the privilege of doing what so many other economists of my age and rank do—namely, offer unsolicited speculations about what is right and what is wrong with modern economics. First, something that is right. [...]
26Oct2011 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 10 comments | ContinuedTaxation Is the Lifeblood of the State
The cliffhanger debate over whether or not to raise the federal government’s debt ceiling threw U.S. fiscal policy into brighter relief than it has been in recent memory. Suddenly people were calling for significant cuts in government spending in the face of a rapidly growing national debt. As often happens, calls for cuts in government [...]
26Oct2011 | Arthur E. Foulkes | 4 comments | ContinuedQuantitative Easing Forever?
Despite assertions that it has ended its policy of quantitative easing (QE), the Fed is unlikely to be able to do so until it also ends its zero-interest-rate policy (ZIRP). This deadly policy duo has had terrible consequences for the American economy and every country using U.S. dollars. It is as though the Fed were [...]
26Oct2011 | Christopher Lingle | 1 comment | ContinuedPrincipal-Agent Problem Meets the Public Sector
The problem with trying to adapt business-style incentives to a government agency is . . . government.
19Sep2011 | Fred Smith and Jacqueline Otto | 4 comments | ContinuedSardines at Midnight
Sardines at midnight? If the mood should strike me, I can zip down to the local Safeway store here in Belmont, California, which is open 24/7, and be back with a can in 20 minutes. My biggest problem would be choosing from among Thai, Canadian, Polish, or Norwegian sardines packed in water, olive oil, tomato-basil, [...]
24Aug2011 | Warren C. Gibson | 3 comments | ContinuedSeasteading: Striking at the Root of Bad Government
Libertarians have done a wonderful job of pointing out the inefficiency and cruelty of government and identifying some of the causes. We know that current policies are bad; we know that such policies are the inevitable outcome of unrestrained democracy; and we even have some ideas about what would work better. The most fundamental problem [...]
24Feb2011 | and Patri Friedman | 11 comments | ContinuedThe Decline in Economic Freedom
In the early 1980s both the United States and the United Kingdom reduced marginal tax rates, brought inflation under control, and relaxed both regulations and trade barriers. Many other countries soon followed, and the result was a quarter-century of expansion in both economic freedom and the growth of income. These movements can be observed in [...]
24Nov2010 | , , and James D. Gwartney | 4 comments | ContinuedIdeas versus Interests
Bad incentives can be overcome by good ideas.
11Oct2010 | Isaac M. Morehouse | 4 comments | ContinuedThe Paradox of the Welfare State
Welfare states face an inescapable paradox: The level of production needed to sustain a welfare state cannot be sustained by a welfare state. This paradox is created by policies that encourage the redistribution and consumption of wealth while discouraging its creation. In the face of such perverse incentives, living standards must fall even though, for [...]
22Sep2010 | Richard W. Fulmer | 24 comments | ContinuedWhat Does the Oil Spill Prove?
You’ve got to hand it to the people who dislike free markets. They see them everywhere, especially wherever any serious problem arises. That no free market exists within a thousand miles makes no difference whatsoever. Take the oil spill in the Gulf. Market opponents are having a field day. They say this finally demonstrates the [...]
25Aug2010 | Sheldon Richman | 3 comments | ContinuedSupply Depends on the Demand for (Often Unseen) Alternatives
It’s important to understand that supply is just the flip side of demand and often gives us an alternative way to change the incentives people face.
12Aug2010 | Steven Horwitz | 2 comments | ContinuedApplied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One
This book works well on two levels. First, it explains the basic principles of economics in an unusual way—without equations, graphs, and jargon. It could be read easily by an intelligent ninth-grader, but it is neither condescending nor dull. Sowell is a master storyteller. Second, Applied Economics compares how well markets work to how well [...]
9Jul2010 | Craig M. Newmark | 4 comments | ContinuedThe Not So Wild, Wild West: Property Rights on the Frontier
I remember very well the images of the American West I received as a child. Movies, TV shows, and books convinced me that the West was excitingly wild and violent, with wars and gunfights as staples of everyday life. No doubt millions of others have grown up with the same idea, and a corollary—that the [...]
9Jul2010 | George C. Leef | 0 comments | Continued-
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