Austrian Addiction

Dan D'Amico on proportionate punishment, free market prisons, criminal justice, Austrian economics and much more.
Violence in sports
Tyler Cowen posts the abstract of an interesting new paper on violence in the NHL . This post reminded me of a brief paper idea I had recently and was encouraged to pursue further. The question at hand was, why do fights clear the bench in baseball but...
Sudha Shenoy, RIP
As many of you have by now already heard the bad news is that the dear Sudha Shenoy, hostorian, scholar and all around wonderful person has passed away from a bout with cancer. She will be sorely missed. In reading several obits ( 1 , 2 , 3 , and 4 )...
a new blog on the economics of graffiti
the economics of graffiti blog at http://economicsofgraffiti.blogspot.com/ is new but very interesting. I would consider most of the content sociology or anthropology but the summary paragraph hints at some incentive and cost benefit analysis. "economists...
Is the criminal justice system racist?
Heather Mac Donald says no in an interesting piece in today's City Journal. The black incarceration rate is overwhelmingly a function of black crime. Insisting otherwise only worsens black alienation and further defers a real solution to the black...
Relax I'm a doctor
I'm pleased to announce that I successfully defended my dissertation as of 3pm April 22. Thanks to everyone involved and all my friends and family for their help and support. Read More...
Don't arrest me bro.
These hoodlum libertarians will think twice before trying to celebrate the birth of a founding father again. Balko reports and makes the front page of digg this morning. Read More...
Links to pass the time...
Once again it's been a long while between posts. I'm off to Vegas tomorrow morning for this years APEE conference . The ominous dissertation defense is right around the corner, scheduled for April 22. Here are some interesting links to help pass...
2 quick things
1) Pointer from Marginal Revolution to Cop in the Hood . Pre-ordered my copy already and can't wait for the exciting read. 2) Don't know why I keep torturing myself on the whole colorblind thing but I think I'd be some kind of outlier in this...
Gainfully employed!!!
Once again a thousand apologies for such delays between posts, I am sad to report that much of the same can be expected for at least another month or so as I am finalizing my dissertation and defending in the very near future. As for the title of the...
Prison stats make another new record
I saw this from the New York Times yesterday. Originally I wanted to put up a post that asked the following question: For how long will America continue to set new records in the realm of incarceration and punishment trends without a serious call for...
Open Access Harvard
This could be huge! Read More...
Smoking bans lead to drunk driving.
Productivity Shock posted a great abstract on this topic. I would guess that any number of the following might be true and also contribute to the phenomenon in question, but might not be detectable by the existing data. 1. Bumming out cigarettes is more...
A tragicomic explanation of the tragedy of the commons
Are Smurfs a public good? Ryan Somma seems to think so. Apparently if no one owns something everyone must own and have a right to it. This article gets an A for effort but could use a dose of Coase. La la la la la la la... Read More...
Open Source Academics
This interesting protest of "locked down" academic journals made it to Digg's frontpage today. Read More...
Why aren't there any folk songs for Capitalism?
Pete Boettke recently asked this puzzling question along with another tough one: "why does capitalism produce yet fail to inspire, while socialism inspires, yet fails to produce?" in class and blog. I'm in the midst of reading Property and...
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