• Rothbard Quote of the Day: Theory and History

    Updated: 2010-07-30 20:02:24
    | Peter Klein | I stumbled recently upon this passage from Murray Rothbard’s review of Unemployment in History by the distinguished historian John A. Garraty. Rothbard’s review, published in 1978, raised an issue that has come up in previous discussions of the Freakonomics phenomenon (1, 2, 3, 4): Can a little theory, without accompanying real-world [...]

  • Regulatory Capture

    Updated: 2010-07-29 16:41:41
    | Dick Langlois | I seem to be on the “communitarianism” mailing list of Amitai Etzioni, missives from which are usually good for a cold frisson of annoyance. The most recent one seemed promising, however, as it touted a paper revisiting the capture theory of regulation. Many people have rightly criticized the Dodd-Frank Act for [...]

  • Foss and Klein Critique of Kirzner

    Updated: 2010-07-28 17:57:36
    | Peter Klein | The Spring 2010 issue of the Journal of Private Enterprise contains a Kirzner symposium, including a paper by Nicolai and me, “Alertness, Action, and the Antecedents of Entrepreneurship.” We critique Kirzner’s concept of the “pure entrepreneur,” arguing that alertness is a historically contingent attribute of real-world business people — what Mises [...]

  • The Wikileaks Data Dump

    Updated: 2010-07-27 16:56:04
    | Peter Klein | I’ve been fascinated by the reaction to the Wikileaks release of 90,000+ classified documents related Afghanistan war. US and British (and Pakistani) authorities are predictably outraged, while critics of the war are encouraged that the disclosures could help turn the tide, as did the Pentagon Papers three decades prior. What interests [...]

  • Overconfidence

    Updated: 2010-07-26 18:56:34
    | Peter Klein | Busenitz and Barney (1997) famously argued that entrepreneurs (founders) are particularly susceptible to overconfidence and representativeness biases. Compared to professional managers, entrepreneurs systematically overestimate the probability that a new venture will succeed and tend to draw unwarranted generalizations about the future from small samples. Overconfidence is now one of the major [...]

  • Free Personal Finance Software: Microsoft Money Sunset Version

    Updated: 2010-07-26 03:48:19
    Last year, Microsoft decided to stop selling its Money personal finance software and announced that no future updates to the software will be available. Existing Money Plus customers can continue to use the software and access online services (such as data sync with MSN Money or statement downloads) until their copy expires on Jan. 31, [...]Free Personal Finance Software: Microsoft Money Sunset Version is brought to you by Canadian Capitalist -- Helping you to invest & prosper.

  • Performance Evaluation Links

    Updated: 2010-07-23 04:59:19
    | Peter Klein | Performance evaluation is a favorite topic here at O&M; readers may enjoy these miscellaneous items on measurement: “Is Impact Measurement a Dead End?” by Alanna Shaikh, guest blogging at AidWatch. Moneyball’s Michael Lewis on basketball player statistics (HT: PB). The Urban Institute’s Outcome Indicators Project for nonprofits. Relevant Demotivators: Flattery, Ineptitude, [...]

  • Summary of Dodd-Frank Act

    Updated: 2010-07-21 17:33:49
    | Peter Klein | The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act — I’ll refrain from snarks about the title — was signed into law today by President Obama. Here is a very useful summary by William Sweet of the Act’s contents and likely consequences. In a nutshell: “The Dodd-Frank Act effects a profound [...]

  • The Organizational Economics of the BP Oil Spill

    Updated: 2010-07-20 17:58:22
    | Peter Klein | Now that passions are cooling regarding the BP disaster, it’s time to bring organizational issues into the discussion. 1. Everyone knows about the liability caps and the role they may have played in encouraging moral hazard. Just as bank deposits are guaranteed by government deposit insurance, and large banks themselves are [...]

  • Misc Academic Links

    Updated: 2010-07-19 18:49:24
    | Peter Klein | Academia’s love-hate relationship with wikis. Deathbed witticisms from Voltaire, Hegel, and other interesting persons. Should research universities exploit the internal division of labor? Tips on academic job talks from Fabio’s valuable series. Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati Filed under: [...]

  • Political and Methodological Individualism

    Updated: 2010-07-18 21:23:27
    | Peter Klein | Further to Nicolai’s post, it is also widely believed that methodological individualism — the chief explanatory principle of economics and rational-choice sociology and political science — implies or justifies political individualism or, even worse, some kind of metaphysical or ontological individualism. “But people are social beings!” cry the critics. Well, sure. [...]

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