Through the price system, because many consumers and businesses make buying and selling decisions for the same good or service, price conveys information.
Our Weekly Roundup: From Milk to Tobacco
Our weekly roundup includes the everyday economics of consumer surplus, monopolistic competition, economic development, poverty and technology spillover.
Can We Use Happiness to Evaluate Tobacco Legislation?
Mandated by Ronald Reagan and approved by subsequent presidents, cost-benefit analysis of federal regulation could be inaccurate for new tobacco regulation.
Why is the Milk at the Back of the Store?
Because market structure shapes a firm’s behavior, a supermarket’s product placement relates to the monopolistic competition that characterizes its market.
Understanding African Development Through Stories and Stats
By combining stories from Chimamanda Adichie’s Americanah and statistics, we can create a more realistic picture of African development.
Seeding change: seeds or change?
Cash grants are an alternative form of foreign aid. Tough to accept, cash could have more benefits than other traditional programs.
The Spillover from Refrigerators in China
The spread of refrigeration in China has positive and negative externalities that relate to household diets, greenhouse gases and transport and home waste.
Hamburger Economics
Our Sunday Charts The 2014 Big Mac Index is out and not much has changed. Norway’s Big Macs are most expensive and Chinese Big Macs are cheap. As The Economist explains, starting in 1986, they wanted to take a lighthearted look at whether currencies…
Our Weekly Roundup: From Argentina to North Dakota
Today’s weekly roundup includes the everyday economics of sovereign debt defaults, oil boom towns, athletes’ labor markets and the GDP.
The Tour de France Gender Gap
Typified by the Tour de France, male/female athletes’ salary gender gap will diminish when female athletes’ media, consumer and commercial appeal increase.
