Economists' capture

Iowa’s “Butter-Margarine War”: T. W. Schultz’s Fight for Academic Freedom

During the Second World War, economists at Iowa State College published a pamphlet titled “Putting Dairying on a War Footing,” which would...

Why Big Tech Companies Should Engage With Academia, and Why They Don’t

“Academic engagement” of a Big Tech firm: that job should exist. But it has not happened, and it probably won’t happen, unless...

It Is Such a Small World: The Market-Design Academic Community Evolved in a Business Network

Private equity funds such as Michael Dell's MSD Capital made hundreds of millions of dollars in profits from the 2017 FCC spectrum...

Tainted Philanthropy in Higher Education

Our institutions of higher education should apply appropriate ethical and academic standards when considering financial donations; otherwise, they risk promoting the private interests of...

Are the Findings in Academic Economic Journals to be Trusted?

A growing number of studies provide evidence that editors (and referees) of academic journals often publish only findings showing a significant effect or surprising...

A New Capitalisn't Episode: Did the Economists of the '60s and '70s Ruin the Economy?

Are economists to blame for our current state of affairs? That's the argument Binyamin Appelbaum makes in his book "The Economists' Hour." In this...

Data-Driven Ideology: The Problem With Economists' Takeover of Policymaking

According to New York Times journalist Binyamin Appelbaum's recent book The Economists' Hour, economics is not the unbiased science that it pretends to be, but...

Corporations and the Rise of the Chicago Law and Economics Movement

From its birth in 1946 onward, corporations made possible and crucially supported the rise of the Chicago law and economics movement. Aaron Director,...

Thomas Piketty, Chile's Political Chaos, and How to Change Capitalism for the Better: ProMarket’s Top Stories of 2019

As 2019 draws to a close, we look back at ProMarket’s most-read and most-widely shared stories of the past year. Thomas Piketty’s long-anticipated follow-up to...

Uber’s “Academic Research” Program: How to Use Famous Economists to Spread Corporate Narratives

Uber's employees co-authored academic papers with brand name scholars that were then used to back the company's PR and lobbying strategy. Published in respected...

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LATEST NEWS

Capitalisn't

The Aristocracy of Talent: Business Intelligence

Adrian Wooldridge

In the following excerpt from his new book, The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World, Adrian Wooldridge traces "how universities...

Antitrust and Competition

Why Privacy Experts Need a Place at the Antitrust Table

Cristina Caffarra, Johnny Ryan

Antitrust enforcers have tended to stay narrowly “in their lane,” failing to engage with how data is collected and used by digital...

News

Assessing George Stigler’s Economic Theory of Regulation

Cary Coglianese

Despite its flaws and limitations, Stigler’s seminal article on the theory of economic regulation remains an important piece of scholarship worthy of...

Economic History Series

“Old Chicago” and Freiburg: Why Ordoliberalism Was No “German Oddity”

Stefan Kolev, Ekkehard A. Köhler

Both the Chicago and Freiburg schools faced systemic fragility as the crucial property of societal orders. It was this fragility that served...

Commentary

The Many Faces of Stigler’s Theory of Economic Regulation: Interest Group Politics Still Thrives—But Industry Often Comes Second

Richard Epstein

Stigler treats industry groups as the heavyweights in regulatory contests. But surprisingly often groups of farmers and workers knock them for a...