Articles | 2008 Archive

Faculty Affiliate Dr. Michael Munger offers an interesting economic analysis in The Library of Economics and Liberty titled “Orange Blossom Special: Externalities and the Coase Theorem”. Dr. Munger is a Professor of Political Science, and Department Chair, as well as a professor of economics. His current research includes projects on the ideology of racism in the slave South, and experiments using human subjects on spatial location games under complex information settings. Prof. Munger's primary teaching interests are methods and American institutions. His publications include four books, Ideology and the Theory of Political Choice (1994), Analytical Politics (1997), Empirical Studies in Comparative Politics (1998), and Analyzing Policy (2000). He has published widely in journals in Political Science (including the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, and the Journal of Politics) and Economics (including the Journal of Law and Economics, the Southern Economic Journal, and Economic Inquiry). His other work includes a variety of policy monographs and reports, for private organizations and government agencies at the federal, state, and local level. Professor Munger has taught at Dartmouth College, University of Texas, and University of North Carolina (where he was Director of the Master of Public Administration Program), as well as working as a staff economist at the Federal Trade Commission during the Reagan Administration. He is a past President of the Public Choice Society, an international academic society of political scientists and economists with members in 16 countries.

Philosophers tend to think of them as “conventions.” Economists and some biologists conceive of them as “spontaneous orders,” a concept discussed at some length in other papers in this issue. Perhaps the most general conception is “systems” theory, with roots in many disciplines. Many scholars in the sciences have tried to advance their research agendas by bringing systems theory to the study of human civilization. Gordon Tullock, a scholar who in the future will be recognized as someone well ahead of his own time, traveled the reverse path, in many cases being the first to suggest that the path even exists.

Does the blogosphere generate truth, or what Stephen Colbert calls ‘truthiness,’ facts or concepts one only wishes or believes were true?

Published in Presidential Studies Quarterly (Vol. 38 Issue 1 Page 96 March 2008). View more here.

Dr. Gary Zinn, Teaching Professor of Economics at East Carolina University, addressed the John Locke Foundation Shaftesbury Society Luncheon on March 10. The topic of his talk was Economic Analysis of Small Regions: A Focus on Eastern North Carolina. View Professor Zinn’s speech in its entirety here. He has taught courses in Microeconomic principles, Macroeconomic Principles, and Regional Economics. His areas of research include forest resources management and planning, economic evaluation of forest product markets, facilitating regional economic growth and development and wood products industry planning and design. Dr. Zinn studied Forest Management at West Virgina University as an undergraduate. He received his M.A. in Forest Economics from State University of New York and his Ph.D. in Forest Economics and Forestry from Syracuse University. Dr. Zinn is a member of the Society of American Foresters, the American Forestry Association, and the American Economic Association.

Prices are the central force directing resources and shaping consumption in a market economy. But most economic activity seems to take place without any influence from prices at all. Most employment, and in dollar terms most production, choices are not directly guided by any observable price.