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October 11, 2017

The ‘nudge’ that separated families

Richard Thaler, the co-author of Nudge, has won the Nobel Prize for his contributions to behavioral economics. While he decides how best to spend his $1.1 million in prize money, less prosperous families are paying the price for government policies advancing economic paternalism. Continue Reading...
October 11, 2017

More victims of the $15 minimum wage

The deleterious side effects of the $15-per-hour minimum wage have continued to manifest across the country, affecting cities from Seattle to Minneapolis and states from California to New York. To illustrate the damage, the Employment Policies Institute is maintaining a catalog of suffering businesses across the country, highlighting stories of raised consumer prices, increased unemployment, reduced working hours, and outright business closures. Continue Reading...
October 11, 2017

Kuyper the anti-revolutionary

Abraham Kuyper knew that revolutions almost always make life worse, says WORLD magazine’s Marvin Olasky: Theologically, Kuyper followed John Calvin and other Reformers. Politically, he said government must not obstruct proclamation of the gospel, promote a counter-gospel, take away religious freedom, or coerce conscience. Continue Reading...
October 10, 2017

Should we be nudged toward libertarian paternalism?

If the boy is father to the man, then I was raised by a profligate dunce. Even though I had learned the power of compound interest in high school, I foolishly squandered my trivial savings at a time when the “eighth wonder of the world,” as Albert Einstein called it, would have had the greatest impact. Continue Reading...
October 10, 2017

Does tying benefit social welfare?

Note: This is post #52 in a weekly video series on basic microeconomics. What is tying and how is this a form of price discrimination? An example of a tied good is an HP printer and the HP ink you need for that printer. Continue Reading...