Behavioral economists recognize that we are all subject to the cognitive biases they have observed and studied in laboratory experiments. Yet the leading behavioral economists exhibit far more interest in applying those biases to market decisions than to political decision-, and see irrational...

Nobel laureate James McGill Buchanan proudly served as president of the Southern Economic Association from 1962-1963. In his presidential address “What Should Economists Do?,” he suggested that the study of economics is best approached by concentrating on exchange and the coordination that...

We analyze the effects of fair-trade programs, which allow people to pay extra for products expecting that the premium will improve the lives of poor people in poor countries. We assume these programs are operated exactly as those donating would ideally like them to be. All the money paid in...