Welcome to my Substack, and thanks for your interest.
I am Senior Lecturer, Director of Undergraduate Studies, and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Economics at Harvard University; I am also Vice President for Research at the Cato Institute. I hold a B.A. in Economics from Swarthmore College and a Ph.D. in Economics from M.I.T. My commentary on economic policy has appeared on CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, NPR, Bloomberg, Fox, BBC, and dozens of other television, radio, and print outlets around the world.
The goal of my posts is to explain the libertarian perspective on economic, social, and foreign policy. This perspective argues for shrinking government to its size and scope in the 90s; that is, the 1790s.
To make this case, I will select news stories, op-eds, research papers, blogs, or tweets that address government policy and examine them through a libertarian lens.
My perspective on policy flows from economics, not philosophy, so my conclusions come from analyzing the consequences, good and bad, of government interventions in the economy and society. At times I will relate the consequential analysis to philosophical or rights-based approaches, and I do not regard the different views as antithetical. Nevertheless, my focus will be on consequences, defined broadly (e.g., impacts on social norms).
I developed this perspective on policy in the process of creating an undergraduate course that I teach at Harvard University: A Libertarian Perspective on Economic, Social, and Foreign Policy. The course has enrolled several thousand students over the past nineteen years, and I am deeply grateful to them for their interest in the course. Whether they agreed or disagreed, they helped me immensely in developing my thinking on these issues.
Comments are welcome; I will do my best to respond.
Jeff