Products and services
Can money buy happiness? What is the value of things? How do people measure that value, whether we are speaking of consumer products, health, activities, or time? Free markets have a simple answer: willingness to pay (WTP). The value of a cell phone, a pencil, or a puppy is people’s WTP to pay for it. […]
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Scientific theories have long appeared as polished systems of ideas, presented through equations, models, and textbook explanations. This holds especially for economics. Yet behind every theory there usually lies a rich history of intellectual debate, sometimes accompanied by considerable confusion and disagreement. Conversations on Rational Choice offers readers an opportunity to explore not only the technical and […]
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Our economy doesn’t work for us and it hasn’t for a long time. Not only is it prone to periodic crises and breakdowns, but it is failing us in terms of addressing longer-term issues such as climate, elder care, and a living wage. This cannot be blamed solely on exogenous shocks or external social and […]
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The conduct of empirical exercises and comparative case studies and the invoking of theoretical analyses are common to almost all economic debates as participants seek to support/undercut different positions. Industrial policy (IP) debates are no exception, although far less examined is the history behind the theoretical analyses that are invoked. Why? Given the dominance of […]
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For decades, behavioural economics has transformed how we think about human decision-making. It showed that people are not the cold, hyper-rational optimisers imagined by classical economics. We rely on heuristics. We fear losses more than we value equivalent gains, we overvalue our own properties, we discount future rewards more than we should. And we have […]
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What can we learn about broad institutional formation from the experience of US environmental legislation? Despite providing public goods, environmental regulation is too costly, inequitable, and controversial. Why that is the case and what it suggests for general institutional change are cautionary lessons from the adoption of centralized prescriptive policies rather than decentralized markets to […]
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In 2012, Zambian President Michael Sata launched “Link Zambia 8000,” pledging 8,000 kilometers of new roads. Billions flowed from China, the World Bank, and OECD financiers. A decade later, less than 10% was completed. The new tarmac clustered in the Northern Province—a ruling-party stronghold—while the opposition’s Southern Province remained a patchwork of dusty tracks. As […]
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For much of the past decade, corporations occupied a very visible place in public life. They spoke after Charlottesville and January 6, opposed the withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, intervened in immigration and voting debates, and redesigned internal policies—from reproductive healthcare to gun sales—in response to political change. In the process, the boundary between economic […]
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