The Continuing Relevance of the Bootlegger-And-Baptist Model
Lynne Kiesling In 1983 Bruce Yandle wrote an influential article in Regulation, “Bootleggers and Baptists: The Education of a Regulatory Economist”. His model explains how two parties with seemingly...
View ArticleWalmart Supports Employer Health Care to Raise Rivals’ Costs
Lynne Kiesling I have to admit, I thought that this point was obvious. Clearly Walmart (accurately, I think) sees itself as well-positioned to leverage its size nationally to negotiate better health...
View ArticleEternal Truths About Those Who Are Attracted to Politics
Lynne Kiesling Over the past week there’s been an interesting online conversation with the participants discussing one of the eternal tautological conundrums: why does politics attract power-hungry...
View ArticleComplexity Essay Question from Megan Mcardle
Lynne Kiesling Megan McArdle offers an essay assignment: Pascal Emmanuel-Gobry has an essay question: Tainter’s story goes like this: a group of people, through a combination of social organization and...
View ArticleIntrusive Tsa Searches Create Profit Opportunity for Adidas
Lynne Kiesling A concise public choice analysis of the distortionary economic rents created by the ever-increasing “layers” of TSA security theater, as reported today on the Wired gadget blog: Airport...
View ArticleIf You Must Subsidize Energy, Subsidize Wisely
Michael Giberson Earth Track has dedicated itself to uncovering the government policies that it finds harmful to the environment, with a particular focus on the effects of energy subsidies. From...
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Which States Have Price Gouging Laws?
Michael Giberson A graphic illustrating states with price gouging laws (blue) and states without them (gold). For a list of the states with citations and related notes, see my earlier “List of States...
View ArticlePublic Choice Theory: Skwire’s First Law
Some time last spring, my friend and occasional KP contributor Sarah Skwire formulated on Facebook what’s now dubbed “Skwire’s First Law”, and we’ve been using it, kicking its tires, and discussing it...
View ArticleFun with Footnotes (a Game of Scholarly Discovery)
“Let’s … have … fun … with … footnote[s],” MacLean said.* Here is a simple game of scholarship that anyone can play and everyone who plays by accepted norms of scholarship wins!** How to play: Take the...
View ArticleNancy Maclean’s Generalized Rewriting of James Buchanan’s Views on Democracy
I have only read a small bit of Nancy MacLean’s book on James M. Buchanan, public choice, and politics. I’m reluctant to buy a copy, but I wanted to see if it was as bad as some critics have said. (Now...
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