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Economic History | Reseach

Why Inflation Matters

Steven Horwitz | Oct 07, 2010
Although it has yet to make an appearance on the current economic scene, inflation continues to be a ghost that haunts the future of the U.S. economy. As part of the variety of expansions of…

An Unrighteous Piece of Business

A New Institutional Analysis of the Memphis Riot of 1866
Christopher Coyne, Art Carden | Jul 27, 2010
To what extent can outsiders impose sustainable change on insiders acting within existing institutional arrangements? This paper explores this question in the context of the American Reconstruction…

Trial by Battle

Peter Leeson | Jul 09, 2010
For over a century England's judicial system decided land disputes by ordering disputants' legal representatives to bludgeon one another before an arena of spectating citizens. People called these…

Does Government Spending Affect Economic Growth?

Thomas Stratmann, Gabriel Lucjan Okolski | Jun 10, 2010
In response to the financial crisis and its impact on the economy, the federal government has increased government spending markedly in order to stimulate economic growth. With billions of taxpayer…

Rational Choice, Round Robin, and Rebellion

An institutional solution to the problems of revolution
Published in
Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization
Peter Leeson | Mar 19, 2010
This paper argues that 18th-century merchant sailors who confronted the problems of collective action devised a novel institution to facilitate maritime revolution and assist them in overthrowing…

What Happened to 'Efficient Markets'?

Peter J. Boettke | Jun 2009
The financial crisis of 2008 challenged the public consensus supporting free market economies. This paper argues that the current shift in favor of heavy regulation and government intervention in the…

The Ordinary Economics of an Extraordinary Crisis

Peter J. Boettke, William Luther | Jun 2009
Ordinary economics teaches that markets continually adjust to scarce resources. This paper demonstrates how modern economic theory has neglected ordinary economics in favor of static equilibrium…

Institutional Transition and the Problem of Credible Commitment

Published in
Annual Proceedings of the Wealth and Well-Being of Nations
Peter J. Boettke | Jan 2008
During the last phase of state socialism, the economic reforms attempted by these countries didn’t stop the collapse of communism.

An-arrgh-chy: The Law and Economics of Pirate Organization

Published in