NBER

“There Are Few Things More Exciting Than Learning Something New and Important About Humanity”: Alesina’s Scientific Odyssey

"It is a rare scholar who does research in his 60s that is as exciting as the research that he did in...

Indecent Proposals in Economics: The Moral Problem With Randomized Trial Experiments

The advent of field Randomised Control Trials (RCTs) has made it more acceptable for applied economists to collect data in developing countries....

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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...