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...

Is a monopolized banking sector a threat to democracy? While Oskar Lange and Abba Lerner (1944) recognized that socialism was a threat to democracy, they also held that a tendency towards banking sector monopolization under capitalism would undermine democracy through the inevitable...

What is the relevancy of modern Austrian economics? Austrian economics, from its origins, has attempted to push economics towards greater relevance by developing and refining a methodological approach that enhances the operational validity of its scientific conclusions for decision-making in the...

Is capitalism a necessary condition for political freedom? Friedrich Hayek argued that capitalism is necessary for political freedom in what is now known as the Hayek-Friedman Hypothesis. While previous empirical work using economic freedom as a proxy for capitalism has somewhat confirmed the...

There is a wide consensus that the U.S. K-12 public education system is in need of fundamental reform. Reformers face two primary barriers to reform; knowledge and incentive problems. Knowledge problems represent the epistemic difficulties inherent in designing a top-down educational system...

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...