The Lorenz curve and Gini coefficient are typically used to measure inequality. A different way to measure inequality is introduced here: I = CN, the product of concentration and number of units. The resultant index can be interpreted with reference to an inequality base where one unit owns all...

This paper examines the process of mass democracy as the fundamental cause of transfer seeking and the centralization of governance, using Austrian-school theory and methodology such as decentralized knowledge, disaggregated phenomena, and the structure of capital goods. The alternative of...

Rationales for government interventions in the market are typically based on theories of market failure set within a framework of fixed private-sector practices and technologies. However, continuous technological progress and entrepreneurial innovation are eroding the theoretical foundations of...

Many people study economics because they wish to understand why we have social problems such as unemployment and poverty, and how they can be remedied. Most people have similar visions of prosperity and justice. We want to live in social harmony, where everyone who wants to can work and make a...

An ideal public revenue policy respects a person's right to privacy, does not discourage work or savings, and does not induce dishonesty. While income, sales, and value-added taxes fall woefully short of this ideal, land value taxation meets each requirement

Henry George was an American economist and social philosopher who wrote during the last three decades of the 1800s. He combined economic analysis with moral philosophy, as one of his themes was that there is a harmony between economics and ethics: what is economically efficient is also morally...

This paper presents an analysis of what is termed "geo-rent," what the plot-devoid-of-improvements would rent for in an auction. Most of the public finance literature and current thought has disvalued and misunderstood the actual and potential role of land and its rent for public revenue. The...

The U.S. economy as well as much of the global economy will very likely fall into a depression in 2008. This booklet will explain why there will be a recession and depression by the end of the decade of 2000-2010, and why the most probable year is 2008. You will learn how you can minimize your...

Prior to the passage of Proposition 13, local governments in California set their own property tax rates and received the revenues. California's Proposition 13, enacted in June 1978, severely limits the state's ad valorem real property tax. The measure limits the real property tax to one percent...

Government planning of urban development is inefficient as it is controlled by political processes rather than conducted on behalf of the people it is intended to benefit. Certain forms of property rights such as divisions of freehold and leasehold can, and in practice do, lead to much more...