Richard Thaler won the Nobel Prize for describe how even small economic incentives can affect behavior. One of those nudges, high “sin taxes,” has helped finance terrorism and organized crime. Sin taxes played some role in his winning the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences this week. The Nobel Committee that awarded Thaler’s prize in economics noted, “The insights of behavioral economics can also be used to inform more traditional policy interventions, for example the taxation of ‘sinful goods,’” adding...

“Each generation needs to re-own the rationale for Christian education,” says philosopher James K.A. Smith, “to ask ourselves ‘Why did we do this?’ and ‘Should we keep doing this?’” In answering such questions, Smith notes, “it might be helpful to point out what Christian education is not”: First, Christian education is not meant to be merely “safe” education. The impetus for Christian schooling is not a protectionist concern, driven by fear, to sequester children from the big, bad world. Christian...

On this episode of Radio Free Acton, Caroline Roberts talks with Ben DeGrow, Director of Education Policy at The Mackinac Center for Public Policy, about school choice, previewing his panel presentation at Acton’s ingEducation & Freedom conference. Then, Caroline Roberts hosts another Econ Quiz with guest Dave Hebert, Professor of Economics at Aquinas college on the topic of the week: tax reform. Finally, on the Upstream segment, Bruce Edward Walker talks with Jonathan R. Eller, Chancellors Professor of English at...

Richard Thaler, the co-author of Nudge, has won the Nobel Prize for his contributions to behavioral economics. While he decides how best to spend his $1.1 million in prize money, less prosperous families are paying the price for government policies advancing economic paternalism. Thaler suggested in a 2012 New York Times op-ed that the United States follow Europe’s lead in raising the price of gasoline in order to preserve the environment. Hiking the gas tax would be a more efficient...

The University of Chicago’s Richard Thaler recently won the Nobel Prize for his contributions in behavioral economics, much of which centers on challenging rational choice theory. “Renowned for his use of data to observe and predict how people behave in the real world,” writes Derek Thompson, “Thaler’s career has been a lifelong war on Homo economicus, that mythical species of purely rational hominids who dwell exclusively in the models of classical economic theory.” Victor Claar has helpfully summarized Thaler’s work...

In another round of conservative debate on the virtues — or vices — of the market economy, Acton Research Director Samuel Gregg published a new piece at Public Discourse in which he takes on the critiques of writer Matthew McManus. MacManus’ criticisms were written in reply to an earlier piece in which Gregg addresses the growing criticisms of a free economy by editors and writers at First Things magazine. In Gregg’s article, Capitalism, Conservatives, and the Intellectuals: A Reply to...

Death and taxes may be the only certainties in life, but there is a close third: e tax cuts mostly benefit e workers. As Congress discusses tax reform, the debate about who will benefit from tax cuts is back in the news. And many people are concerned with how the changes will favor high e earners. Even President Trump has promised that the reforms won’t give wealthy Americans a massive tax cut. The reality is that there is almost no...

Abraham Kuyper knew that revolutions almost always make life worse, says WORLD magazine’s Marvin Olasky: Theologically, Kuyper followed John Calvin and other Reformers. Politically, he said government must not obstruct proclamation of the gospel, promote a counter-gospel, take away religious freedom, or coerce conscience. Reliance on central government “begets a slow process of dissolution that cannot but end in the demoralization of government and people alike.” Kuyper’s alternative was “sphere sovereignty.” That meant leaders in education, business, religion, media, and...

The deleterious side effects of the $15-per-hour minimum wage have continued to manifest across the country, affecting cities from Seattle to Minneapolis and states from California to New York. To illustrate the damage, the Employment Policies Instituteis maintaining a catalog of suffering businesses across the country, highlighting stories of raised consumer prices, increased unemployment, reduced working hours, and outright business closures. I’ve pointed to several of those stories in the past, and in four new videos, EPI offers fresh glimpses...

On Monday the University of Chicago’s Richard Thaler won a Nobel Prize for his work in behavioral economics. “Thaler’s work raises important questions about the state’s influence over human action,” says Victor V. Claar in this week’s Acton Commentary. In some years two or three economists share the prize for their collective contributions to a specific line of inquiry, but this year the 72-year-old Thaler was the sole recipient for his accumulated plishments in behavioral economics. Put simply, behavioral economics...