Peter T. Calcagno

Elliot Sclar's book You Don't Always Get What You Pay For: The Economics of Privatization presents an empirical analysis of privatization that he thinks has been lacking.

The Eastern European countries have been going through a transition phase since the liberalization of their economies with the collapse of communist regimes in the early 1990s.

Taxes distort the price system and always alter behavior away from the free-market ideal. That is why, as J.B. Say said, the best tax is always the lowest tax. But in recent years, state and local governments have been using the tax system, along with direct subsidies of all sorts, to influence where particular firms locate, all in an effort to generate more growth and thus more tax revenue. Can states and localities really "buy growth" for themselves through this means?