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Price Discrimination and the Future of Movies

By  Adam Martin

On September 4, Disney released Mulan on its Disney+ streaming service. Mulan’s release was delayed because of COVID-19. For about $30, depending on what country they are in, Disney+ subscribers purchase early “Premier Access'” to the movie before it becomes available to all subscribers. In some countries, including China and others that do not have .. MORE

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The Puzzling Economics of Sports

By  Allen R. Sanderson

“Why is it that we seem to be concerned that some baseball players may gain an unfair advantage by turning to pharmacists while at the same time we don’t blanch at people getting cosmetic surgery to improve their competitive advantage?” Why is it that no one complains when Ray Romano (“Raymond”) gets $50 million a .. MORE

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Adam Smith on Relationships between Young and Old

By  Anna Claire Flowers

The Theory of Moral Sentiments, by Adam Smith Relationships between people of different generations make up some of the most meaningful connections life has to offer. They shape deep-seated beliefs, goals, and priorities. In The Theory of Moral Sentiments [TMS], Adam Smith describes the human actor as one who is guided by relational experiences. Do .. MORE

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Economic Theory

Peace on Earth, Goodwill Towards Refs

By Kevin Lavery

Microeconomics

Silver and Gold

By Art Carden

Book Review

How Productivity Advances

By Arnold Kling

Microeconomics

The Fast Fashion Dilemma

By Joy Buchanan

Tariffs

Diving into Tariffs at Liberty Fund Today

By G. Patrick Lynch

Tariffs

No Manufacturing Jolt from Tariffs

By Jon Murphy

Free Will and Determinism

Free Will Is Real (with Kevin Mitchell)

Reading List

Sam’s Links: Holiday Edition

By Sam Enright

Book Review

Exploring The Chile Project

By J.P. Bastos

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David Deutsch on the Pattern

A world-class physicist makes a shocking claim: across 2,500 years and every kind of society, there has been a recurring moral exception carved out just for Jews–the idea that hurting Jews is, in some sense, legitimate. Most of the time, this doesn’t erupt into pogroms. Instead, it lives as a background permission: a readiness to excuse, .. MORE

econtalk-podcast

Gary Belsky on the Origins of Sports

Gary Belsky, co-author of On the Origins of Sports and former editor-in-chief of ESPN the Magazine, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the origins of sports–how various sports evolved and emerged into their current incarnations. Along the way he discusses the popularity of American football, the written (and unwritten) rules of sports, and the .. MORE

EconLog

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Economic Theory

Peace on Earth, Goodwill Towards Refs

All major American professional sports have a time of year when they capture the eyes of the nation. America’s pastime, baseball, has the ‘Fall Classic’, the NFL dominates Thanksgiving, and the country has an entire weekend dedicated to the Super Bowl. Christmas Day is the NBA’s time to shine with action from noon to midnight .. MORE

Economic and Political Philosophy

Voice, Exit, and Cheerleaders

The newest season of the Netflix documentary America’s Sweethearts, which traces the 2024 audition, training, and performance season of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, is a lot more than just a pretty face. The philosopher Loren Lomasky has argued persuasively in Persons, Rights, and the Moral Community that one of the things that makes humans human .. MORE

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Economic Harmonies

By Frédéric Bastiat

Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850) was a French economist, statesman, and author. He was the leader of the free-trade movement in France from its inception in 1840 until his untimely death in 1850. The first 45 years of his life were spent in preparation for five tremendously productive years writing in favor of freedom. Bastiat was the .. MORE

Elements of Political Economy

By James Mill

There are few things of which I have occasion to advertize the reader, before he enters upon the perusal of the following work.My object has been to compose a school-book of Political Economy, to detach the essential principles of the science from all extraneous topics, to state the propositions clearly and in their logical order, .. MORE

Book Reviews and Suggested Readings

Michael Munger on Sharing, Transaction Costs, and Tomorrow 3.0

Economist and author Michael Munger of Duke University talks about his book, Tomorrow 3.0, with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Munger analyzes the rise of companies like Uber and AirBnB as an example of how technology lowers transactions costs. Users and providers can find each other more easily through their smartphones, increasing opportunity. Munger expects these .. MORE

Who Won the Socialist Calculation Debate (with Peter Boettke)

For more than a century, some economists have insisted that central planning can outperform markets. Economists like Mises, Hayek, and Friedman disagreed. Who won this debate? Is it over? Does AI change how we should think about the power of planning? Listen as economist Peter Boettke of George Mason University discusses what is known as the .. MORE

Conversations

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A Conversation with Milton Friedman

Recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, Milton Friedman (1912-2006) has long been recognized as one of our most important economic thinkers and a leader of the Chicago school of economics. He is the author of many books and articles in economics, including A Theory of the Consumption Function and A Monetary History .. MORE

VIDEO

An Animal That Trades

A five-part short video series on the life and contemporary relevance of Adam Smith. This video series, produced by AdamSmithWorks, can be watch as a full 38-minute feature, or in five thematic, classroom-friendly chunks. To access all, click here.   Below are some discussion prompts related to this video:   Part 1: The Invisible Hand .. MORE

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Supplementary materials for popular college textbooks used in courses in the Principles of Economics, Microeconomics, Price Theory, and Macroeconomics are suggested by topic.

Economist Biographies

From the Concise Encyclopedia of Economics

The Economics of Special Markets

Sports

Major league sports, as every reader of the sports pages knows, is a major league business. As a result, economics has a lot to say about how players, teams, and leagues will act under different circumstances. But would you believe that economics can be used to predict which teams will win and which will lose? .. MORE

Basic Concepts, The Marketplace

Information and Prices

Modern economists excel at identifying theoretical reasons why markets might fail. While these theories may temper uncritical views of the market, it is important to note that markets do, in fact, work incredibly well. Indeed, markets work so thoroughly and quietly that their success too often goes unnoticed. Consider that the number of different ways .. MORE

International Economics, Taxes

Tariffs

A tariff is a fancy word for a tax. The term usually refers to import duties, which are fees levied on goods entering one country from another. Import tariffs have been a controversial feature of domestic politics, international diplomacy, and economic policy for centuries. This article covers some of the basic economics of tariffs as .. MORE

Quotes

The market economy is the product of a long evolutionary process. It is the outcome of man’s endeavors to adjust his action in the best possible way to the given conditions of his environment that he cannot alter.

-Ludwig von Mises

Regard to our own private happiness and interest, too, appear upon many occasions very laudable principles of action.

-Adam Smith Full Quote >>

We are as little able to conceive what civilization will be, or can be, five hundred or even fifty years hence as medieval man, or even our grandparents, were able to foresee our own manner of life.

-F. A. Hayek