EJW Audio

John Horowitz on Public Finance and the Welfare Costs of Taxation

John Horowitz discusses his EJW article (co-authored with Cecil Bohanon and James McClure) showing that public finance textbooks very often fail to illuminate the welfare costs of taxation and to address those costs when taking up relevant matters such as the optimal provision of public goods and cost-benefit analysis.

Morris Kleiner on Occupational Licensing

Morris Kleiner discusses his research as represented in Licensing Occupations: Ensuring Quality or Restricting Competition? (2006) and Stages of Occupational Regulation: Analysis of Case Studies (2013), both published by the W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. The latter book is the subject of a review essay by Uwe Reinhardt [“Does Occupational Licensing Deserve Our Approval? A Review of Work by Morris Kleiner”] that will appear in the September 2014 issue of EJW.

Robin Klay and Victor Claar on Economics in Religious Perspective

In conjunction with the Acton Institute co-sponsored symposium “Does Economics Need an Infusion of Religious or Quasi-Religious Formulations?,” Robin Klay discusses her paper “Where Do Economists of Faith Hang Out?,” and Victor Claar discusses his contribution “Joyful Economics,” which interprets economics in terms of our good stewardship of God’s house.

Dennis Coates and Brad Humphreys on Sports Subsidies

Dennis Coates and Brad Humphreys discuss their EJW paper finding that economists mostly frown on government subsidies for professional sports franchises, facilities, and events. They also discuss why sports receive subsidies nonetheless.

Lanny Ebenstein on Milton Friedman’s Ideological Evolution

Based on his EJW article “The Increasingly Libertarian Milton Friedman” Lanny Ebenstein discusses how Friedman’s support for liberalization became more pointed, sometimes even abolitionist, on a number of government interventions.

Daniel Klein on the Ideological Migration of the Economics Laureates

Daniel Klein describes and summarizes the project in EJW that investigates the ideological outlook of each of the 71 Nobel laureates in economics (through 2012) and whether that outlook changed over the course of his or her adult life. Change is charted particularly with respect to classical liberalism. Klein discusses whether the results serve as meta-evidence for the wisdom of classical liberalism.

Frank Stephenson on Occupational Licensing and Labor Economics

Frank Stephenson discusses his 2009 EJW article with Erin Wendt on the scant coverage of occupational licensing (OL) in labor economics textbooks. The scantiness raises interesting questions, given the large and growing role of OL in the economy, and the value of the topic in teaching economic insights. Stephenson reports that, since the article appeared, two of the in-print texts that had entirely neglected OL have been revised to include some coverage of OL. Stephenson has also written a short update about those two revised textbooks.

Catherine Hakim on Work-Lifestyle Preference and Erotic Capital

In this podcast, Catherine Hakim first discusses “preference theory,” her theory that women have different attitudes than men about work and lifestyle. The discussion is framed by her contribution to the 2008 EJW symposium on gender balance in the economics profession. (And here is a subsequent rejoinder by symposium lead authors Christina Jonung and Ann-Charlotte Ståhlberg.) Then, Dr. Hakim discusses her recent work on erotic capital, explaining what it is, what it helps us understand, and why it is increasingly important.

Hugh Rockoff on Free-Banking Episodes

Hugh Rockoff discusses his EJW paper (with Ignacio Briones) on the findings of economic historians with regard to periods during which banks were lightly regulated. Rockoff explains the nature of these banking episodes and suggests that economic historians have come to a conclusion that overall the banking systems performed relatively well.

David Lipka on Deirdre McCloskey, Max U, and Prudence in Adam Smith

David Lipka brings Adam Smith’s ideas about prudence to Deirdre McCloskey’s suggestion that the Max U approach represents prudence. In this discussion of his EJW article, Lipka suggests that prudence in Smith and maximization are quite different things, and he explains several facets of the difference. While embracing McCloskey’s larger project, Lipka cautions against associating prudence with maximization.