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...

At first blush, Thaler and Sunstein seem to be proposing that voluntarily helping people to overcome or cope with their rash, ignorant, impulsive selves be called “libertarian paternalism.†Such semantics would only cause confusion and introduce new terminology for things already well...

Adam Smith doubted an invisible hand in academia, saying that academia was prone to clubbish foolishness. From economics-department webpages, I collected data on Ph.D. origination of economics faculty. Using a ranking of 200 economics departments world-wide, I find that at the top departments...

Gunnar Myrdal urged economists to disclose their ideological sensibilities, to mitigate asymmetric-information problems in scientific discourse and to reduce the hazard of bias. Myrdal’s plea informs us of the importance of frank discussion of ideological sensibilities, including...

Professor Gavin Kennedy’s essay on the invisible hand raises several issues: (1) whether the three occurrences of the phrase in Adam Smith’s writings are reconcilable; (2) whether the phrase may properly serve as tag for an important idea in natural jurisprudence; and (3) the...

We present results of a December 2008 Zogby International nationwide survey of American adults, with 4,835 respondents. We gauge economic enlightenment based on responses to eight economic questions. A number of controversial interpretive issues attend our measure, including: (1) our designation...

We have made a complete review of Krugman’s New York Times columns 1997 through 2006—in all, 654 columns. The pattern of policy positions and arguments do not square with his purported concern for general prosperity and the interests of the poor. Some of the evidence lies in...

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...

A sample of 299 U.S. economics professors, presumably random, responded to our survey which asked favorites in the following areas: Economic thinkers (pre-twentieth century, twentieth century now deceased, living age 60 or older, living under age 60), economics journals, and economics blogs....

One’s ideological views – that is, the pattern of positions one tends to take on important public-policy issues – run deep and change little. Inevitably they involve commitments and judgments about the most important things. Just as we value disclosure of vested interests, we value...