Corporatism in Everything or: How to Have Government Work for You without Resorting to Bribery

BK Drinkwater has a couple of excellent posts on established businesses using the force of government to muscle out competitors ( I also like them because they both have my name in them, to paraphrase the man himself). Here’s another interesting example from the story of unlicensed contractor stings I blogged about at Fr33Agents the [...]

The CEO and the Senator

Scott Adams has a degree in Economics. Judging by the comic below, he must have studied some Public Choice. In relatively well-functioning western democracies, politicians accepting outright bribes take a significant political risk. The final two panels illustrate two ways special interests can rent-seek without the need for a brown paper bag full of money. Special hiring [...]

Yandle on Tobacco Regulation

Bruce Yandle, author of the wonderful paper “Bootleggers and Baptists: The Education of a Regulatory Economist,” applies the logic of that paper to FDA regulation of tobacco in the latest issue of The Freeman: No, there is no evidence to suggest that tobacco has until now been “an industry that has gone basically unregulated.” But [...]

Bootleggers and Baptists: Normatively Ambiguous

I think the Bootleggers and Baptists theory of regulation is incredibly helpful in explaining policy choice. I also think the normative view we should take of organizations putting forward public interest arguments to advance their financial interests is far from straightforward. Often, the arguments are very bad (as in the classic bootleggers and baptists story). At [...]

Bootleggers and Baptists: Climate Change Edition

I’ve been blogging about bootleggers and baptists a bit lately, so I should probably mention this excellent WSJ article on The Climate-Industrial Complex from Bjorn Lomborg. The partnership among self-interested businesses, grandstanding politicians and alarmist campaigners truly is an unholy alliance. The climate-industrial complex does not promote discussion on how to overcome this challenge in [...]

The Political Economy of Smoking Ban Exemptions

Two interesting items on exemptions to smoking bans have come through my Google Reader recently. First, Jacob Grier points out that cigar bar exemptions seem pretty elitist, especially when they specifically prohibit cigarette smoking in the cigar bar. I can’t think of a decent reason for allowing cigar smoking but not cigarette smoking in the same [...]

Bootleggers and Baptists: Animal Cruelty Edition [updated]

Unsurprisingly, pig farmers are using recent controversy in New Zealand over sow crates to argue for protection against international competition: Blame imported pork for keeping sows in cramped stalls, say three Taranaki pig farmers. The intensive farming practice of keeping breeding sows in stalls has been in the spotlight since TV1′s current affairs programme Sunday [...]

Bootleggers and Baptists

Bruce Yandle’s excellent paper Bootleggers and Baptists: The Education of a Regulatory Economist is required reading for anyone interested in politics. It’s also a fun read. Indeed, the pages of history are full of episodes best explained by a theory of regulation I call “bootleggers and Baptists.” Bootleggers, you will remember, support Sunday closing laws that shut down all [...]