~marginalrevolution | Bookmarks (45)

Here is an outline of part of my lecture.  I presented “free trade” (NB: it wasn’t totally free), the classical gold standard, and some modicum of free immigration (not everywhere) as three successful and mostly stable pillars of 19th century classical liberal achievement.  Of course that was for limited parts of Western Europe and North […] The post Some triumphs of 19th century liberalism...

You know, the 1961 #1 hit by Gary U.S. Bonds?  I’ve been thinking about this question for months.  I feel a good amount is at stake.  If songs such as Quarter to Three (or done live with dancers) are still great, our assessment of early times risesconsiderably.  But if they are dispensable throw-aways, the history […] The post How good a song is Quarter...

1760-1830, typically considered peak of Industrial Revolution Malthus, first decade of the 19th century Ricardo’s Principles, 1817 Theory of rent Theory of comparative advantage The machinery question Ricardo, The High Price of Bullion, 1810 Bullionist debates, Napoleonic wars, Ricardo and Malthus and Thornton Ricardian equivalence, thinking in terms of systems and models The Ricardians: James […] The post 19th century British economic thought (another...

Doug of course is one of the top trade economists.  Here is the audio, video, and transcript, from the same wonderful Mercatus team that brings you CWT.  Here is one excerpt: RAJAGOPALAN: I have a different question on Adam Smith. We’re all taught Adam Smith’s division of labor, specialization, economies of scale, the cliff notes […] The post Shruti Rajagopalan interviews Doug Irwin appeared...

T-Mobile’s takeover of Sprint was controversial among analysts. “If this merger is not anticompetitive,” Eleanor Fox, a trade regulation and antitrust law professor at New York University, told reporters in 2020, “it is hard to know what is.” Yale economist and antitrust scholar Fiona Scott Morton delivered her verdict on the deal in a co-authored 2021 article: “The era […] The post Revisiting the T-Mobile-Sprint Merger appeared first...

Early French moralists, some of them Jansenists: Pierre Nicole, La Rochefoucauld, etc. Invisible hand, idea of “mechanism” Pascal, Pensées, 1669, probability and expected value 17th century mercantilism, Louis XIV, Colbert 18th century, Galiani (Italian), French debates on bread and bread prices 1748, Montesquieu, Spirit of the Laws, analysis of commerce Diderot, Voltaire, Encyclopedia, rationalism Beccaria […] The post Early French economics, my lecture notes...

1650s, wars with England, invasions, Cromwell repels the Scots 1690s – Darien Scheme in Panama, Scots more generally grow interested in empire 1707 – Union with England Scotland keeps its Presbyterian church and laws Scotland never settled by Rome, for a long time closer to France Post Glorious Revolution, many Scots still loyal to the […] The post My notes/outline on the rise of...

Science seems like a public good; in theory, ideas are non-rivalrous and non-excludable. But the closer we look at how ideas actually spread and are used in the world, the less they seem like public goods. As I am fond of pointing out, Thomas Keller wrote a literal recipe book for the dishes he served […] The post Is Science a Public Good? appeared...

In 1927, George and Ira Gershwin put on a musical satire about trade and war entitled Strike Up the Band.  The plot centres around a middle-aged US cheesemaker, Horace J. Fletcher of Connecticut, who wants to corner the domestic dairy market.  When Fletcher hears that the US government has just slapped a fifty per cent […] The post The Gershwins on free trade (that...

Here is the link, I am reviewing a bad book on the Clinton administration (A Fabulous Failure, by Lichtenstein and Stern).  Here is one excerpt: Clinton-era welfare reform is another area where many commentators go astray, and Lichtenstein and Stein are no exception. The Clinton pronouncement “I have a plan to end welfare as we […] The post My TLS essay on the Clinton...

Greg Clark may well be the most important social scientist of the 21st century. His use of historical data informed by evolutionary theory and genetics is a unique contribution to social science with important and challenging results. Clark’s latest paper (with Neil Cummins) makes a simple but striking point. If the primary systematic determinant of […] The post Matriline versus Patriline: Social Mobility in...

That is my podcast with Cardiff Garcia, now on-line and with transcript too.  Cardiff proposed a novel approach: Who is the Magic Johnson of economics? Who was the Adam Smith of basketball? On this fun and oddball episode of The New Bazaar, Cardiff speaks with Tyler Cowen, economist and author of GOAT: Who is the […] The post If econs could hoop — The...

It was meant as an insult, implying that Mises – a marginalist – was trying to salvage 19th century liberal economics from the collectivist attacks of the Marxist left and the Nazi right, hence the “neo” moniker being attached. One of the main promoters of this use was Othmar Spann, a rival of Mises on […] The post From the beginning, “neoliberalism” was an...

East India Company founded — 1600 Shakespeare – Hamlet published 1603 England starting to settle America – 1607 in Virginia, assorted, you could add Harvard here as well King James Bible – 1611 The beginnings of steady economic growth – 1620 (Greg Clark, JPE) Rule of law ideas, common law ideas, Sir Edward Coke – […] The post What happened in 17th century England...

Yes I will be doing a Conversation with him.  Here is one outdated bit from his home page: Benjamin Moser was born in Houston. He is the author of Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector, a finalist for the National Book Critics’ Circle Award and a New York Times Notable Book of 2009. For his work bringing Clarice […] The post What should I ask Benjamin Moser?...

Here is the audio, video, and transcript, here is the episode summary: Rebecca F. Kuang just might change the way you think about fantasy and science fiction. Known for her best-selling books Babel and The Poppy War trilogy, Kuang combines a unique blend of historical richness and imaginative storytelling. At just 27, she’s already published five novels, and her […] The post My Conversation with Rebecca F. Kuang...

No one’s family name was changed, altered, shortened, butchered, or “written down wrong” at Ellis Island or any American port. That idea is an urban legend. Many names did get changed as immigrants settled into their new American lives, but those changes were made several years after arrival and were done by choice of someone in […] The post No One’s Name Was Changed at...

The Center for the History of Political Economy at Duke University will be hosting another Summer Institute on the History of Economics from June 3-12, 2024. The program is designed for students in graduate programs in economics, though students in graduate school in other fields as well as newly minted PhDs will also be considered. […] The post Duke History of Economic Thought Summer...

The country was not quite as rich in the early days as it is sometimes made out to be: Argentina’s performance on this measure is frequently exaggerated.  In 1929, for example, Argentina’s per capita income was less than half of the average of other temperate agrarian societies (such as Canada and Australia) and of European […] The post Argentina fact of the day appeared...

But a hundred years ago, birds were seen as the best remedy for the weeds and insect pests that threatened the country’s food supply and cost farmers hundreds of millions of dollars every year. And in order to identify the precise impact that birds had on agriculture, a field called economic ornithology was born. According […] The post Economic ornithology appeared first on Marginal...

“The counterfeiter probably didn’t realize that that coin didn’t exist,” Dr. Ortega said. He said that an influx of low-value coinage would have been welcomed in Peru at the dawn of the 20th century. The country’s economy was reeling from the recent War of the Pacific, and the government was focusing on printing larger-denomination paper […] The post The efficiency of counterfeiting in 19th...