Mark Thoma, live at SSRN … economics lost communication with policymakers and practitioners leaving room for all sorts of “charlatans and cranks” to fill the void. In doing so, academics ceded important ground to think tanks aligned with one party or the other, to self-appointed economic experts, to business economists maximizing profit rather than public […]
Henry Farrell
Henry Farrell is associate professor of political science and international affairs at the George Washington University. He blogs at Crooked Timber and The Monkey Cage.
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Free Trade II: Free Trade and Intellectual Property
On the more particular topic of free trade agreements, Matthew Yglesias posts today on how US free trade agreements aren’t so much about free trade any more. The trade deal was supposed to be a political vehicle for overcoming special interest politics, but it’s really just become another venue for interest group politics. … The […]
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Free Trade I: Does Free Trade Help Workers’ Rights?
Layna Mosley, at UNC, argues yes in today’s New York Times. Research I conducted over the last several years with the political scientists Brian Greenhill and Aseem Prakash suggests that trade with developed nations helps developing countries expand labor rights themselves. Why? International trade gives producers incentives to meet the standards of their export markets. […]
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All that you ever wanted to know about the political economy of small businesses in Italy, but were afraid to ask (and much, much more)
Matt Yglesias and Tyler Cowen argue that Italy’s economic problems have a lot to do with the country’s reliance on small businesses. Matt: Jared Bernstein cautions against the over-lionization of small businesses in the New York Times. I agree. The best evidence for skepticism continues, I think, to me the fact that if small firms […]
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Welcome to Suzanne Mettler
Suzanne Mettler, Cornell political scientist, author of The Submerged State: How Invisible Government Policies Undermine American Democracy, and creator of the table that launched 1000 blogposts will be guestblogging with us for a while. We are very happy to have her.
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
Bubble Trouble
In a 2009 book about the social consequences of the Internet, The Age of the Infovore, the economist and blogger Tyler Cowen argues that new technologies enable us to decide what information to consume and, as a result, to remake ourselves. Instead of reading the same newspaper or watching the same television news, we can […]
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
Do the Netroots Matter?
The progressive blogs and online networks have changed politics. But did they replace the media or win the 2008 election?
Posted inFeatures
Can Partisanship Save Citizenship?
In the 1990s, reformers and academics worried about how to improve civic life. They didn’t foresee that technology combined with party politics would renew civic engagement.
