Religious leaders sometimes condemn progressive social norms. In this paper, I revisit David Hume's hypothesis that secular states can "bribe" churches into adopting less strict religious doctrines. The hypothesis is difficult to test due to reverse causality: more liberal theologies may attract...

Using unique survey data that allows us to observe both voters' and politicians' preferences for local public spending as well as voting decisions, this paper tests if voters typically support parties in which the politicians' preferences are closest to their own. Doing so would be rational for...

The desirability of inheritance and gift taxes depends on individuals' tax responsiveness. This paper demonstrates how strongly, and in what way, the German inheritance and gift tax influences taxpayer behavior. To that end, it combines administrative data with cross-bracket tax variation: a...

We conduct a laboratory experiment to study how demand for redistribution of income depends on self-interest, insurance motives, and social concerns relating to inequality and efficiency. Our choice environments feature large groups of subjects and real world framing, and differ with respect to...

Die moderne Volkswirtschaftslehre als wissenschaftliche Disziplin ist einerseits durch große Uneinheitlichkeit geprägt, die andererseits selbst in Zeiten der Krise der Theorie anscheinend nicht nachhaltig in ein öffentliches Bewusstsein vordringen konnte. Nach wie vor wird die Ökonomik...

Friedrich August von Hayek hat der Nachwelt ein breites theoretisches Werk hinterlassen. Ein durchgängiger Wesenszug darin ist sein spezifischer Liberalismus, der durch einen negativen Begriff von Freiheit bestimmt ist. Damit verbunden ist Hayeks ausgeprägter methodologischer Individualismus....

In the eighteenth century, a fierce political debate broke out in Sweden about the causes of an extraordinary depreciation of its currency. More specifically, the deteriorating value of the Swedish daler was discretionarily blamed on monetary causes, e.g. the overissuing of banknotes, or...

The sciences tell us that fears are physical feelings and mental emotions that play a key role in any society. Not many issues related to fear are explored by economists today. The aim of this paper is to go backwards through the history of economic thought, and examine if and how Adam Smith...

Against the background of modern-day monetary proposals, ranging from a return to the gold standard to the wholesale abolition of currency, this paper seeks to draw implications from David Ricardo's Proposals for an Economical and Secure Currency for plans to reform the operation of central...

Neoclassical economists of the current era frequently pay lip service to Adam Smith's theories to certify the validity of natural-laws-based, laissez-faire policies. However, neoclassical theories are fundamentally disconnected from Adam Smith's notion of value, his understanding of the economic...