An important component of the argument of F. A. Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom is that those people likely to … Continue reading “Why do the worst get on top? An answer from Public Choice”

One of the most important contemporary debates in political economy concerns the impact of the market on culture and the … Continue reading “From Big Macs to Big Brother: the market and culture”

Libertarians have traditionally been sceptical of the case for electoral reform, in large part because there appears to be a … Continue reading “A libertarian argument for Alternative Vote”

Political commentators are currently expending much energy trying to explain (what we might call) the Nick Clegg phenomenon – including … Continue reading “Nick Clegg: this week’s mephedrone?”

Advocates of privatisation have often paid insufficient attention to one of the most important reasons why scholars like Friedman and … Continue reading “Bringing privatisation into disrepute”

Libertarians have traditionally been sceptical of the case for electoral reform, in large part because there appears to be a … Continue reading “A libertarian argument for Alternative Vote”

Political commentators are currently expending much energy trying to explain (what we might call) the Nick Clegg phenomenon – including … Continue reading “Nick Clegg: this week’s mephedrone?”

Irrespective of the moral rights and wrongs of the former Royal Bank of Scotland chief Sir Fred Goodwin’s pension entitlement, … Continue reading “Harriet Harman, property rights and the rule of law”

In recent months there appears to have been a resurgence of scholarly interest in F. A. Hayek’s classic of political … Continue reading “The Road to Serfdom, now more than ever”

Economists often identify a dichotomy between people’s stated preferences and the preferences that are revealed when people are actually required … Continue reading “Emma Thompson, Heathrow expansion and revealed preferences”

Sir – Marx’s theory of the crises of capitalism is little more than a melodramatic description of the business cycle … Continue reading “Marx was wrong in every important respect”

The Guardian’s environment editor, John Vidal, cannot resist a swipe at the IEA’s latest publication, Climate Change Policy: Challenging the … Continue reading “Rampant ageism in the Guardian”

This morning the UK government announced that in the last quarter unemployment rose by more than 80,000 to a total … Continue reading “Unemployment and the minimum wage: the government cannot escape responsibility”

In a letter to The Times on 8 August 1980, the IEA’s founder Editorial Director Arthur Seldon made the following … Continue reading “The Labour Party and Arthur Seldon’s predictions”

The Ethics of the Market synthesizes the work of a number of liberal and libertarian scholars into a positive account … Continue reading “The Ethics of the Market”

Subscribe to Economic Affairs This symposium critically examines methods of measuring poverty in developed countries, including the UK and the … Continue reading “Poverty Amidst Affluence? (Volume 27.3)”