 | The Political Economy of Crisis Opportunism 
November 11, 2009
Mercatus Policy Series
Robert Higgs |
| Under modern ideological conditions, a national emergency produces a virtual free-for-all of policies, programs, and plans that expand the government’s power. This expansion leaves the public with altered political and ideological sensibilities. Efforts to rein in the government’s crisis-driven overreaching must concentrate, first, on affecting the public’s thinking about how the government ought to act during an emergency and, second, on changing the machinery of government so that ill-considered or poorly justified measures cannot be adopted so easily.
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 | The Neoliberal Revolution In Eastern Europe: Economic Ideas in the Transition from Communism
March 13, 2009
Books
Anthony J. Evans, Paul Dragos Aligica |
| Very few studies have ventured to explore the shift in economic ideas that were such a critical factor in shaping and understanding the East European transition process. Paul Dragos Aligica and Anthony J. Evans have seized upon the potential that this crucial case has to illuminate the larger phenomenon of diffusion and adoption of economic ideas.
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 | With Friends Like These, Who Needs Enemies? Aiding the World's Worst Dictators - Working Paper
September 24, 2008
Working Papers
Christopher Coyne, Matt E. Ryan |
| Despite rhetoric supporting liberal values and institutions, the governments of developed countries provide continued development and military assistance to the world's worst dictators.
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| Europe's Brave New World: Security Implications of Global Population Changes, 2007-2050
September 12, 2008
Working Papers
Jack Goldstone |
| This paper examines four major trends in global population that are likely to pose significant security challenges to Europe in the next two decades.
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| Democracy and the Economy: An Analysis of Buchanan's Views on Political Psychology
September 9, 2008
Working Papers
Alejandra Salinas |
| Buchanan´s notion of “parental socialism” refers to the attitude of many persons who are “afraid to be free” and do not want to face "responsibility for their own actions". His diagnosis is that this behavioral fact triggers the demand for a Welfare State, thus extending collective activities over individual liberties. Salinas claims that this psychological assumption is in tension with Buchanan´s public choice perspective: if what people pursue is wealth maximization, they will try to partially minimize the risks and costs linked to that objective by shifting the burden of welfare provision onto the State.
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| Entrepreneurship, Institutions, and Economic Growth
September 8, 2008
Journal Articles
Frederic Sautet |
| This paper provides a brief view of growth and social change taken from the perspective of the entrepreneurial process and Austrian economics.
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 | The Political Economy of Post-Katrina Recovery: Public-Choice Style Critiques from the Ninth Ward, New Orleans
August 29, 2008
Working Papers
Emily Chamlee-Wright, Virgil Storr |
| This paper provides an account of the political economy critique that residents and other stakeholders in New Orleans’s Ninth Ward communities hold of the post-Katrina policy environment.
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| Direct and Overall Liberty: Areas and Extent of Disagreement
August 29, 2008
Working Papers
Daniel Klein, Michael J. Clark |
| This paper explores possible disagreement between direct and overall liberty. Direct liberty corresponds to the inherent aspects of a policy reform (and its concomitant enforcement), while overall liberty subsumes also its wider and long-run aspects. The article fortifies the liberty principle by arguing that the tension between direct and overall liberty is not so great as to undo its coherence and focalness.
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| Entrepreneurial Policy: The Case of Regional Specialization Vs. Spontaneous Industrial Diversity
August 29, 2008
Journal Articles
Frederic Sautet, Pierre Desrochers |
| Regional economic development policy is recognized as a key tool governments use to foster economic prosperity. Whether specialization (or diversity) of economic activities should be a regional development policy goal is often debated. This paper addresses this question in a local-diversity context, by reviewing traditional arguments in its favor, supplemented with evidence for more entrepreneurial concepts like industrial symbiosis and Jacobs externalities.
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| The Next Silicon Valley? On the Relationship Between Geographical Clustering and Public Policy
August 29, 2008
Journal Articles
Frederic Sautet, Gert-Jan Hospers, Pierre Desrochers |
| This paper critically assesses the relationship between geographical clustering and public policy. With the help of a range of theoretical insights and case study examples we show that cluster policy in fact is a risky\ venture, especially when it is tried to copy the success of regional ‘best practices’. |
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