Adam Smith’s outlook still inspires and informs modern sensibilities and argumentation. It is of interest beyond Smith aficionados whether a particular line of modern thought “fits” Smith. One important such dispute involves recent “left Smithian” writers who argue that he was more...

Rose Friedman (née Director), the Chicago-trained economist, was a very important contributor to Milton Friedman’s scholarly output, popular writings, and television series. His remarkable role in society was to a significant extent a joint role from which she cannot be separated.

This is a reprint of a brief essay originally published in 1951. Hayek looks back on the age of liberalism and its collapse. During the generations of growing darkness, there were a few figures who bridged the age of liberalism and the postwar revival of its ideas and values. Hayek identifies...

A sample of 299 U.S. economics professors responded to our 2010 survey. This paper reports on their views on 17 policy issues. We relate attitude toward liberalization to political-party voting. Abortion and occupational licensing are among the questions novel to the survey. We also look at...

We have created an online questionnaire that queries the respondent about whether the policy of pre-market of approval of drugs and devices has behind it any market-failure rationale. The questionnaire interactively interviews the respondent, making a virtual conversation. The point of the...

This is a comment on Buturovic and Klein (2010), “Economic Enlightenment in Relation to College-going, Ideology, and Other Variables: A Zogby Survey of Americans”.

This is a comment on Buturovic and Klein (2010), “Economic Enlightenment in Relation to College-going, Ideology, and Other Variables: A Zogby Survey of Americans”.

This is a comment on Buturovic and Klein (2010), “Economic Enlightenment in Relation to College-going, Ideology, and Other Variables: A Zogby Survey of Americans”.

Much of federal government policy-making and -implementing is economic in matter and repercussion. But most policy decisions are made ultimately by non-economists. There are many economists in government, some of them seasoned government careerists and some on leave from universities. But what...

We report on 35 US-based economist petitions from 1994 to 2009, featuring 10,792 signatures and 6,030 signatories. We separate the 35 petitions into three categories: 15 liberty-augmenting (or liberal) petitions, 13 liberty-reducing (or interventionist) petitions, and 7 in a category called...