When we read “The Courtship of Miles Standish” in grade school, I had not yet studied economics, so I didn’t understand the theory underlying John Alden’s quandary or that Priscilla Mullins’ famous suggestion to “speak for yourself, John” constituted “collusion”…
Rising egg prices provide lesson in markets’ elasticity
Every cloud has a silver lining and while the avian flu epidemic hurts virtually all consumers and many producers, it has teachers of introductory economics positively chortling in delight. Examples of real-world resource allocation decisions in response to changing incentives…
‘Social capital’ confounds economists
I am trying to coordinate getting five people together to tear carpet and tile out of an education room at my church. Meanwhile, a Catholic Charities facility a half-mile from my house feeds and houses 60 nonrecovering alcoholics every day.…
Weighing a key ‘public good’
In evaluating many fiscal policy issues, it is important to understand that there often is a difference between the cost to individuals, be they taxpayers or citizens, to government and to society as a whole. Sometimes, “savings” to government are…