Informing Public Policy: Analyzing Contemporary US and International Policy Issues through the Lens of Market Process Economics

Purchase the book at Bloomsbury, Amazon, or Bookshop.org.

Published by Bloomsbury Publishing in Economy, Polity, and Society

Market process theory illustrates how the market is the most effective institution for overcoming the knowledge problem. Specifically, the institutional characteristics of private property, monetary prices, and the disciplining mechanisms of profit and loss, guide actors to utilize knowledge dispersed among society, to allocate resources effectively, and to adjust their behavior when errors occur to provide valuable goods and services to society. The chapters in this manuscript explore, through applications to issues within the United States and internationally, contemporary issues in public policy through the theoretical framework of knowledge problems and market process economics.

Utilizing this approach, as well as other fundamental insights from economics, these chapters aim to illustrate how individuals in society address pressing public issues, the problems faced by policymakers, and the potential for novel solutions to policy challenges. Authored by individuals from a variety of disciplines with interests in public policy, this work includes discussions of education, child welfare, urban planning, and U.S. healthcare policy, as well as topics in e-commerce, the Global War on Terror, international trade, and economic development.

Contents

Forward
Don Boudreaux

Chapter 1: Introduction
Haeffele, Hall, and Millsap

Chapter 2: Who Plans? Jane Jacobs' Hayekian Critique of Urban Planning
Gray

Chapter 3: The Knowledge Problem and Education Finance
Crouch

Chapter 4: Centralization of the Child Welfare Systems and the Knowledge Problem
McCray

Chapter 5: The Patient Protection and the Affordable Care Act: That Which is Seen and That Which is Unseen
Shupe

Chapter 6: An Analysis of Agent Decisions and Institutional Effects in Healthcare
Famodimu 

Chapter 7: How Reputational Feedback Can Mitigate the Knowledge Problem: Lessons Learned from the U.S.
Galata-Bickell

Chapter 8: The Knowledge Problem in International Entity Level Taxation
Michel

Chapter 9: De-risking and the Knowledge Problem: The Unseen Consequences of Financial Sanctions
Gjoza

Chapter 10: Trade Openness, Information, Feedback, and Domestic Economic Regulation
Ruhland

Chapter 11: Was it Worth It? The Effects of ODA, NGOs, and Time on Local Politics in the Haitian State
DeMattee