The answer is that people's evaluations of their income situation are based on different considerations when the economy is expanding and when it is contracting. When, in the course of economic growth, incomes generally are rising, evaluations tend to be dominated by "social comparison" - what...

These new and revised essays analyze the revolution in the human condition that is sweeping the world. He asks if free markets are the key to human improvement, as today's policy-makers often assert. His responses employ a rich social science approach, blending economic theory, history,...