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F. A. Hayek, a prominent 20th-century political economist in the Austrian tradition, won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1974 for his pioneering work on the theory of money and economic fluctuations and on comparative institutional analysis. Hayek's research highlights the importance and dispersed nature of knowledge, advancing an interdisciplinary approach to understanding human behavior. Like any great and productive scholar, he left behind a body of work that includes tensions, flaws, and inconsistencies that must be confronted by scholars looking to engage, critique, and advance his distinctive project in political economy. Hayek's work is important but also open for contestation and imp...
James M. Buchanan, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1986, was a pioneer of public choice and constitutional political economy, as well as contributing to many fields of study, including philosophy, political science, and public finance. Each chapter in this volume seeks to explore, critique, and emphasize the continuing relevance of the vast contributions of Buchanan to our understanding of political economy and social philosophy. The diversity in topics and approaches will make the volume of interest to readers in a variety of fields, and accessible to scholars from a variety of backgrounds providing the opportunity to further a cross-disciplinary exploration and discussion on market process theory.
The relative effectiveness of various institutions, such as the market or government, is based on the ability for individuals to access and use dispersed knowledge in society and the incentives that steer their actions. Market process theory emphasizes the effectiveness of the price system to consolidate and transmit knowledge in the marketplace. Together this framework provides new insights on the capability of individuals to cooperate and improve society, and the limits to government interventions in society. The original research in each chapter uses this economic way of thinking to analyze a variety of public policy issues, examining the incentives responsible for and the factors that contribute to the creation and effectiveness of the policies. These chapters, authored by public policy practitioners and researchers, tackle such pressing issues as public education, the process for approving medical devices, tax policy, and land use regulation.
This definitive book examines and engages with the work of Vincent and Elinor Ostrom, along with the Bloomington School of Political Economy more generally. The contributors emphasize the continuing relevance of the Ostroms’ work on collective action, self-governance, and institutional diversity for interdisciplinary research in the social sciences and humanities. This book’s wide array of topics and approaches will be a valuable resource to readers in a variety of fields, including: political science, economics, philosophy, sociology, public administration, environmental studies, and political economy.
Regulations impact a wide array of market and social activities that influence our daily lives. Regulations are attempts to correct perceived market failures, caused by information asymmetries, externalities, and principal-agent problems, and to provide public goods, which would otherwise be underprovided. Government actors are responsible for identifying these issues, weighing the costs and benefits of intervention, and designing and implementating regulations to improve society. Good regulations help mitigate issues in the economy without inciting new problems and without the costs exceeding the benefits of intervention. This requires intensive analysis and an awareness of the complexities...
Market process theory illustrates how the market is the most effective institution for overcoming the knowledge problem. Specifically, the institutional characteristics of private property, monetary prices, and the disciplining mechanisms of profit and loss, guide actors to utilize knowledge dispersed among society, to allocate resources effectively, and to adjust their behavior when errors occur to provide valuable goods and services to society. The chapters in this manuscript explore, through applications to issues within the United States and internationally, contemporary issues in public policy through the theoretical framework of knowledge problems and market process economics. Utilizin...
Rebounding after disasters like tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, and floods can be daunting. Communities must have residents who can not only gain access to the resources that they need to rebuild but who can also overcome the collective action problem that characterizes post-disaster relief efforts. Community Revival in the Wake of Disaster argues that entrepreneurs, conceived broadly as individuals who recognize and act on opportunities to promote social change, fill this critical role. Using examples of recovery efforts following Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Hurricane Sandy on the Rockaway Peninsula in New York, the authors demonstrate how entrepreneurs promote community recovery by providing necessary goods and services, restoring and replacing disrupted social networks, and signaling that community rebound is likely and, in fact, underway. They argue that creating space for entrepreneurs to act after disasters is essential for promoting recovery and fostering resilient communities.
This book asks several critical questions relevant to those interested in public policy: What is a nudge? What are the ethical implications of and justifications for nudges? Are we able to have nudges without affecting one’s freedom to choose? In what institutional context are nudges likely to work well and in what context are they likely to fail? The text explores several real-world instances of government attempts at successful choice architecture across a wide range of policy topics: internet privacy laws, environmental policy, education policy, the sharing economy, and creating a national culture. This approach also highlights the spontaneous and evolutionary nature of social instituti...
Elinor C. Ostrom, a Nobel prize winning political economist, made important contributions to common pool resources, economic governance, and polycentricity. Viviana A. Zelizer, a prominent economic sociologist, has done groundbreaking work on how culture shapes our economic lives. Together, the work of Ostrom and Zelizer spans the disciplines of economics, sociology, political science, and public policy by exploring the social relations and community-based organization of everyday life. Both scholars examine the norms, social connections, and cultural impacts of exchange and governance. This volume explores their contributions and builds off of their research programs to explore the social m...
The unlikely story of how Americans canonized Adam Smith as the patron saint of free markets Originally published in 1776, Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations was lauded by America’s founders as a landmark work of Enlightenment thinking about national wealth, statecraft, and moral virtue. Today, Smith is one of the most influential icons of economic thought in America. Glory Liu traces how generations of Americans have read, reinterpreted, and weaponized Smith’s ideas, revealing how his popular image as a champion of American-style capitalism and free markets is a historical invention. Drawing on a trove of illuminating archival materials, Liu tells the story of how an unassuming Scotti...