Do markets provide adequate incentives for entrepreneurs to effectively assure consumers of authenticity, safety, and quality in the presence of asymmetric information? Early American whiskey markets, where whiskey was commonly sold out of open barrels, present a classic case of asymmetric...

Can variances in institutional structures between markets and governments lead actors to engage in morally divergent behavior? We explore the behavior of early American whiskey distillers in both the market and political sphere. Whiskey distillers attempted to engage in dishonest behavior in the...

Were public interest or public choice factors the primary reason for the adoption of state barber licensure in the United States during the Progressive Era? The primary public interest rationale for licensure was to protect the public from a communicable disease known as the “barber’s...

The modern aim of certificate-of-need laws is to decrease healthcare costs, improve healthcare quality, and increase access to healthcare by restricting healthcare expenditures. But, by empowering incumbent healthcare providers to restrict competition, they can also increase healthcare costs,...