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Publications

The Impartial Spectator and the Moral Teachings of Markets

Published in
SSRN
Virgil Storr | May 07, 2013
Market skeptics have persuasively argued that the market is a social arena that is not simply amoral but that has negative moral consequences. Market apologists have offered two basic responses to this kind of charge: that the market is amoral and that it transforms private vice into public virtue. Rather than celebrating selfishness and greed, I argue that the market tends to punish both vices.

Keep Off the Grass: The Economics of Prohibition and U.S. Drug Policy

Published in
Oregon Law Review
Peter J. Boettke, Christopher Coyne, Abigail Hall | May 2013
This Article examines the political economy of the War on Drugs with particular emphasis on the unintended consequences of drug prohibition. This Article analyzes the effects of prohibition on violence, drug potency, and cartelization in the drug market.

Broadband Adoption Rates and DTV Coupon Redemptions

Published in
SSRN
Sarah Oh | Apr 30, 2013
This article presents an OLS model of broadband non‐adoption rates regressed on DTV coupon requests and redemptions per state. Average state‐level broadband adoption rates for 3 mbps connections are 40% of the population, below 91% availability of 3 mbps broadband.

Evaluating OSHA's Effectiveness and Suggestions for Reform

John Leeth, Nathan Hale | Apr 23, 2013
Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSH Act) to create a safer working environment. The Act created two federal agencies: the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which establishes and enforces workplace safety and health standards, and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), which researches the causes and remedies of occupational injuries and illnesses. OSHA is the fourth pillar of the US safety policy system, the others being the legal system, state workers’ compensation insurance programs, and the labor market.

Constitutional Craftsmanship and the Rule of Law

Organizational Arrangement, Moral Imagination, and the Separation of Powers
Published in
SSRN
Shruti Rajagopalan, Richard Wagner | Apr 15, 2013
Is "rule of law" anything more than a fictional allusion? After all, "law" is an abstract noun, and abstract nouns can't rule. Only people can rule.

Myth Busting: The Laissez Faire Origins of American Higher Education

Published in
SSRN
Daniel Bennett | Apr 09, 2013
Conventional wisdom suggests that American higher education was governed by a free market during the post-Revolutionary antebellum period. An analysis of the political economy of the sector during the period suggests that it did exhibit elements of laissez-faire, but that it was also subject to a non-trivial amount of market-distorting state intervention.

Robust Political Economy and the Lender of Last Resort

Published in
SSRN
Alexander Salter | Apr 06, 2013
Of the leading versions of lender of last resort policy, which is to be preferred in a world of realistic incentive and information imperfections?

Doing Bad by Doing Good: Why Humanitarian Action Fails

Christopher Coyne | Apr 2013
In 2010, Haiti was ravaged by a brutal earthquake that affected the lives of millions. The call to assist those in need was heard around the globe. Yet two years later humanitarian efforts led by governments and NGOs have largely failed.

An Introduction to U.S. Monetary Policy

Steven Horwitz | Apr 02, 2013
This study examines the history and operation of the Federal Reserve System. It explores the Fed’s origins in American economic history and emphasizes the political compromises that produced it.

Competition & Entrepreneurship: The Collected Works of Israel M. Kirzner

Peter J. Boettke, Frederic Sautet | Apr 01, 2013
First published in 1973, Competition and Entrepreneurship defined Israel M. Kirzner’s unique contribution to the economics profession. This volume, in print without interruption since the date of its first publication, provides a thorough critique of contemporary price theory, an essay on the theory of entrepreneurship, and an essay on the theory of competition, offering a new appraisal of quality competition, of selling effort, and of the fundamental weaknesses of contemporary welfare economics.