EJW Audio

David Lipka brings Adam Smith’s ideas about prudence to Deirdre McCloskey’s suggestion that the Max U approach represents prudence. In this discussion of  his EJW article , Lipka suggests that prudence in Smith and maximization are quite different things, and he explains several facets of the difference. While embracing McCloskey’s larger project, Lipka cautions against associating prudence with m...

Roland Vaubel discusses the Euro as a creature of politics. He explains the particular political machinations behind its history, current state, and likely future. The interview builds on  his contribution  to  EJW’s 2010 symposium on the Euro.

James Tooley discusses the treatment of schooling in Poor Economics by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo. He argues, as in  his EJW article , that Banerjee and Duflo do not do justice to low-cost private schools in developing countries.

Robin Lindsey discusses the economics of road pricing, in theory and practice. The discussion is based on  his EJW article  showing that economists agree on using road pricing to alleviate congestion but not on other issues surrounding road pricing.

In this podcast, Pierre Desrochers discusses his research on the tendencies in free enterprise to make wealth from waste. In May 2012, EJW published  a piece by Desrochers  that replies to  a 2008 criticism by Frank Boons  and critically treats work by Christine Meisner Rosen. The same issue of EJW features responses  by Boons  and  by Rosen.

In an EJW article, Daniel Sutter and Rex Pjesky asked  “Where Would Adam Smith Publish Today?”  Their research shows that an overwhelming share of papers appearing in six leading general journals and four leading field journals are mathematical, with 6% of the papers qualifying as ‘math-free’ by the weakest criterion and only 1.5% by the strongest criterion. Here Sutter talks about the findings, n...

The American Economic Association takes pride in celebrating its founder Richard T. Ely. This pride is strange, given the character of Ely’s thought, which is revealed in the EJW article  “Richard T. Ely: The Confederate Flag of the AEA?”  by Clifford F. Thies and Ryan Daza. In this podcast, Thies explores Ely’s ideas, values, and impact.

Henry E. Smith is one of the premier critics of the bundle-of-rights view of property. In this podcast he discusses the nature of property, highlighting the core feature: a presumptive exclusion. He discusses some of the problems with the bundle-of-rights view, highlighting information costs and the forsaking of the core feature of exclusion. Smith is one of nine scholars who contribute to the EJW...

Phil Coelho and Jim McClure discuss  their research published in EJW  and elsewhere showing that top journal papers containing lemmas—intermediate steps in a lengthy proof—are rarely cited by other economists and almost never yield testable propositions. Following Alfred Marshall and Donald F. Gordon, Coelho and McClure argue that longer chains of mathematical reasoning generally have less relevan...

Drawing on  his EJW article , Christopher Martin discusses Emma Rothschild’s influential article “Adam Smith and Conservative Economics,” which treats of a parliamentary debate in 1795–96 as giving rise to two contrasting images of Adam Smith. Martin questions the contrast that Rothschild draws, and recurs to the original debate between William Pitt and Samuel Whitbread, as well as to Smith’s own...

Shirley Svorny explains how regulations on the practice of medicine raise costs and restrict access to care. The podcast starts with a discussion of economists’ views on licensing, as summarized in the paper Svorny wrote for EJW,  “Licensing Doctors: Do Economists Agree?”

Tawni Ferrarini discusses her paper with James Gwartney and John Morton studying the content of AP® Economics: “Advanced Placement Economics: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”  (link) . The paper and podcast offer constructive criticism for revising the content of the AP Economics materials. Parents, students, and educators involved in AP Economics will profit from the critique.

David Henderson tells the story of how economists had a significant voice in ending conscription in the United States. The podcast summarizes the paper Henderson wrote for EJW,  “The Role of Economists in Ending the Draft.”

W. R. Allen tells the story of the UCLA economics department and the distinctive community of scholarship that developed there. The podcast summarizes the memoir Allen has penned for EJW,  “A Life Among the Econ, Particularly at UCLA” .

Jeffrey Rogers Hummel begins with his EJW article, “Death and Taxes, Including Inflation: The Public versus Economists”  (link) . He and Lawrence H. White move on to the brave new world of central banking and stark fiscal issues now looming in the United States.

Michael L. Marlow discusses his EJW article  “Honestly, Who Else Would Fund Such Research? Reflections of a Non-Smoking Scholar” . Marlow also has been recently published in Cato Institute's Regulation magazine on the often  uncounted costs of smoking bans  to fraternal organizations, bars, and their patrons.

Richard Timberlake discusses his August 2005 article in EJW, “ Gold Standards and the Real Bills Doctrine in U.S. Monetary Policy .”

Professor Benson discusses his article in the September 2009 issue of EJW, titled “ Economic Dissociative Identity Disorder: The Math Gamer, the Anti-Policy Econometrician and the Narrative Political Economist .”

Professor Horwitz discusses his article in the September 2009 issue of EJW, titled:  “Great Apprehensions, Prolonged Depression: Gauti Eggertsson on the 1930s.”