No individual in the history of public economics has been subject to more contentious discussion than Knut Wicksell – and perhaps no concept subjected to more diverse interpretation than Wicksell's unanimity rule. The story begins in 1896 with the publication of Wicksell's public finance...

Containment strategies for invasive species often require significant changes in behavior. Success in fostering these changes requires that individuals correctly perceive the costs and benefits. Yet, while both the ecological and aesthetic impacts of some invasive species are universally...

The core of public economics traditionally addresses two situations of market failure: externalities and public goods. The desirability of government action in these cases hinges on decisions made in the revenue-expenditure process. How this process is envisioned can tell us quite a lot about...

This paper examines James Buchanan's earliest writings within the context of post-WWII public finance theory and his education at Chicago. Public choice scholars have long recognized their ties to Chicago, but few have examined Chicago's role serving as the primordial soup for Buchanan's later...

Undergraduate students are often interested in and benefit greatly from applications of economic principles. Although popular historical novels do not provide modern examples or business applications, they do draw from historical situations that can help engage students in economic concepts and...

We use meta-regression analysis to investigate the extent and nature of the gender gap - that male students outperform otherwise equivalent female students in economics courses. We survey 65 studies containing 279 distinct regressions from the past 30 years and conclude that the gender gap is...

This paper examines the institutionalization of public finance as a subfield of economics in American universities from the founding of professional academic economics departments in the 1880's through the eve of the Great Depression. To do so, we examine the development of a community of...

We examine central monetary policy issues as identified in the United States popular press circa 1787. Rather than a study of the functioning of the colonial monetary system, we consider the thinking about the monetary system. Of particular interest is the use of (pseudo) moral arguments for and...

We extend the long literary tradition of Western analyses of Russian economic thought on Keynes. First, we update the story through transition and into the current period. Second, we survey representative contemporary literature on Keynes, identifying four manifestations: that by historians of...

In writing the history of Wisconsin Institutionalism, these women have received little attention (Johnson 2011 and 2015; Kaufman 1993; Lampman 1993; Rutherford 2006 and 2011; Tilman 2008). Yet, the daughters of Commons made important contributions both to the body of work considered Wisconsin Institutionalist...