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Category Archives: Economics
Markets and morality (part 1)
Note: This is the first of six blog posts in which we review Nathan B. Oman’s book The Dignity of Commerce: Markets and the Moral Foundation of Contract Law, University of Chicago Press (2016). Nate Oman begins his beautiful book … Continue reading
Spring break reading list
Here is what we are reading over our spring break: 1. Peter Thiel (with Blake Masters), Zero to one: notes on startups, or how to build the future. We teach business law and are currently writing several chapters of a … Continue reading
Posted in Academia, Bayesian Reasoning, Economics, Ethics, Law
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Taxing robots (Pigovian beard tax edition)
Microsoft billionaire and quasi-monopolist Bill Gates recently proposed that we should tax robots. But should we really tax robots? Why not impose a tax on every line of computer code instead? Or why not tax computer programmers who sport beards? … Continue reading
Posted in Current Affairs, Economics, Politics, Web/Tech
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The End of Risk-Taking?
Our friend and colleague Tyler Cowen has just published a new book with a catchy title: The Complacent Class. At the risk of over generalization (pun intended), Professor Cowen’s book claims that North Americans are becoming intellectually lazy and spiritually complacent–more … Continue reading
Posted in Bayesian Reasoning, Economics, History
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Black History Data Visualization
In honor of Black History Month, we are reposting this hand-drawn visualization of demographic data created by W. E. B. Du Bois in the year 1900. You can find more such turn-of-the-century data visualizations here. (Hat tip: digg.)
Visualization of a “design arms race” (soda can edition)
Why do the designs of the Dr Pepper and Squirt soda cans change less frequently (i.e. are more stable over time) than the designs of Pepsi and Coke cans?
Posted in Economics, Game Theory
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What are the most important unsolved problems in law?
Hola! This intriguing post by our blogging colleague and philosophical friend Tyler Cowen (asking about unsolved problems in economics) got us thinking about unsolved problems in the domain of law. But does it make any sense to talk about soluble … Continue reading
Posted in Academia, Economics, Law, Philosophy
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In memory of Thomas Schelling, the errant economist
Update (1/22/17): check out this touching tribute to Schelling by Glenn Loury. (Hat tip: Garrett Jones, via Twitter.) We have been trying to stay away from the Internet during our “Christmas sabbatical” to spend more time with our family, attend to … Continue reading
Posted in Academia, Bayesian Reasoning, Cooperation, Economics, Game Theory
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