Economics that regards people more democratically.
Economists tend to favor relatively free trade in goods and the discipline is even more optimistic about the benefits of the free movement of people. For example, below are some polls of elite economists done by the University of Chicago Read more
Until the 1990s, most economists believed that the minimum wage was a major cause of unemployment because that is what the canonical supply and demand model predicts. If wages rise, more people will want to work (increasing the quantity of Read more
Updated January 8, 2024 Business cycles are the fluctuations in national income and unemployment. Before the Great Depression, economists had been debating whether or not the government could use monetary and fiscal policy to fight recessions. The mainstream classical school Read more
The goal of affirmative action is a good one: It s to reduce racial disparity. Like most Americans, I support this goal, but I don t personally care much about the Supreme Court decision banning affirmative action in college admissions because affirmative Read more
Stacy Mitchell is the executive director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance who studies the problem of big businesses eating the entire economy. An economy full of small businesses has Less monopoly power which can mean lower prices. Greater diversity Read more
Suppose there are two industries in a nation. One has rapidly rising productivity growth and the other has stagnant productivity growth. Which one would tend to grow and see rising wages? Ironically, the industry with stagnant productivity will probably grow Read more
It is well known that the fossil-fuel industry has spent millions for many years seeding doubts about climate science, as documented in Naomi Oreskes book, Merchants of Doubt. But later, she discovered that electric utilities started a big propaganda campaign Read more
Updated Feb/25/2023 There are only two possible ways to get wealth inequality: some people either make more or they take more. Making is positive sum creation and taking is zero-sum redistribution at best or destructive at worst. Plus there are Read more
I am teaching International Trade this semester and there are two models of trade that are important to teach, but there weren t any resources that teach all the main intuitions without excessive complexity so I wrote my own textbook chapters Read more
Updated March 29, 2023 Matt Yglesias argues that the old British class system had a lot of features that were eerily similar to recent trends in political correctness. For example, educational institutions, particularly at elite levels, have embraced DEI, but Read more