Reputation is possible in a small community, but in the Smith-Lippman-Hayekian Great Society people are mainly strangers. I model credit reporting as a system of formalized and surgically-precise gossip. In the Great Society credit reporting makes possible reputations, which make possible credit...

The amended Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act requires efficacy certification for a drug's initial uses ("on-label"), but does not require certification before physicians may prescribe the drug for subsequent uses ("off-label"). Does it make sense to require FDA efficacy certification for new drugs...

"In economics, considerations of liberty are generally regarded as a secondary question of 'policy implications' and a matter of mere opinion. This essay rejects the relegation of liberty to such a status. It argues that the distinction between voluntary and coercive action, rooted in concepts...

People often suppose or imply that free-market economists constitute a significant portion of all economists. We surveyed American Economic Association members and asked their views on 18 specific forms of government activism. We find that about 8 percent of AEA members can be considered...

"The idea of spontaneous order is here exposited by analogy with roller skating at a roller rink. In the roller rink and in the economy, the key ingredient of spontaneous order is coincidence of interest. This makes the beneficial outcome possible. Central planning is bound to fail if for no...

Articulate knowledge entails the triad: information, interpretation, and judgment. Information is the reading of the facts through a working interpretation. Much of modern political economy has miscarried by discoursing as though interpretation were symmetric and final. This move has the effect...

"It would be beneficial for economists who follow in the tradition of Smith and Hayek to establish an identity whilst accentuating heterogeneity. Existing labels do not really adequately describe the Smith-Hayek character." Copyright (c) 2007 The Author. Journal compilation (c) Institute of...