Policy, markets, and the science of choices.
This paper investigates the role of work in providing meaning, purpose, community, and other non-monetary benefits. Using an original cross-national survey of 8,234 working-age adults across the UK, US, Denmark, and India, I study the factors that motivate peo…
Aspirations have become a common theme in empirical economics studies but there is no unified understanding of the range of outcomes they influence, the factors that shape them, and how to measure them. We survey this growing literature. We argue that there is…
California regulators, led by former CFPB Director Rohit Chopra, just blocked a merger that had also attracted the ire of Mayor Zohran Mamdani. State agencies have more power than we know.
Democracy is more threatened now than at any time in the last 30 years. But there is reason to hope.
From Luis Garicano and Alex Imas: Hence AI capabilities improved 1.91 times faster after October 2025, but R&D spending grew 6.19 times and the technical workforce 3.10 times. So measured capability gains per dollar fell by approximately 69%, and measured gain…
I’m very happy to announce that Mike McFaul and Larry Diamond have agreed to become regular columnists for American Purpose.
What can we learn from the current evidence
Francis Fukuyama on the midterms. Plus, Martin Wolf on The Good Fight.
1. Peru cancels the Moche sculptures for obscenity? 2. Claude translates from The Kalevela. 3. David Chalmers on AI speed-ups. 4. Cass Sunstein picks Bob Dylan’s best songs. 5. “Hobby dogging”? 6. Argentina worries and updates. 7. Jon Hartley podcast with Jame…
It’s not even an ethos, editing Trump videos to make him look less like a completely abnormal fantasist than he is. It is just a grift and a scam...
The shoddy evidence behind billions in claims
I appear on Ryan Bourne’s excellent new podcast, The Economics of It. We discuss The Economics of Rent Controls drawing on my essay, Rent Control: The Ceiling Trap. It’s a very good discussion. Here’s one bit (edited slightly to remove some ums for reading and…
Social media doesn't always reward populists. It punishes leaders who fail voters.
And GMU is on the Outlook system. If you need to reach me, you can extrapolate my gmu address to my gmail address, or try Twitter, or use your imagination in other ways. Sorry for the inconvenience! (Although it seems my Outlook system just opened up, albeit w…
The betrayal of Ukraine continues
Another 50 or 100 basis points in hikes will do almost nothing to bring down inflation
Federal AI at a glance 41 agencies · 3,611 reported use cases · OMB 2025 Inventory. Portfolio size reflects reporting, not performance. From Irakli Petriashvili of Tblisi, here is the site. The post The U.S. Federal AI Observatory appeared first on Marginal RE…
The 65th episode of Hexapodia.
If people really preferred relatively higher income in a poorer society, then those born in Western Europe and the US would be saving up their money so they could live like kings in Africa. Very few people of middle- or upper-class status in poor countries wou…
I tried cutting college costs to the bare bone. It doesn't work.
Life & work in Berkeley, CA, in 2026: in this case the fall 2026 ISF Symposium, and my brief talk at it...
The post My Barcelona talk on AI appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.
What made Posner’s theorizing unique
1. New Texas A&M podcast: Economists Unscripted. 2. A new tool for AI-proof homework assignments. “It’s called https://deb8.tv — students get paired and have live video debates with one another.” 3. “The average French person believes there are 6.4 workers for…
China is embedding more service value added into its manufactured exports; the rest of the world is not.
After years of being under threat, American democracy has proven it can hold.
Goodbye to A Giant
One of my ongoing research interests is understanding the nature of technological progress: How does new technology come into the world and improve over time?
A recording from Paul Krugman's live video
Zidar and Zwick have a good post on the political power of billionaires versus the power of many millionaires, based on their excellent book The Everywhere Millionaire. First, they point out that despite the attention given to (some days) trillionaires and bil…