In an initial post last week , I argued that the proliferation of think tanks over the past 50 years is likely to be a good influence on human affairs, and so is the emerging competition to measure (rank) the performance of think tanks. In this follow-up post and a planned third, I will question the usefulness of the measures used in these rankings. Why measure think tank effectiveness with data like social network impact, web traffic, publication counts, and…
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This is the inaugural installment of a category we’ll call “Intellectuals in Action.” Keeping in mind that the book and this blog mean “intellectuals” in the Hayekian sense as traders in ideas — that is, people whose activities influence (whether deliberately or not) the way that other people view the world. To drill down, readers can go to Hayek’s 1949 essay, “ The Intellectuals and Socialism ,” and the introduction to his 1954 edited volume,  Capitalism and the Historians . The point of this…
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The Center for Global Development recently posted a fresh analysis of think tank effectiveness . The “Index of Think Tank Profile” is essentially a ranking of think tank performance based on measurable outcomes. The authors compile data on social network impact, web traffic, publication counts, academic citations, and more. They also measure inputs, namely a think tank’s aggregate budget. The following bar chart, which ranks impact per per dollar spent, conveys much of the takeaway. For our purposes, this is interesting in…
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A New York Times article on young people and their attitudes towards government got plenty of play this week (on radio and TV, on the blogs, etc.) The headline tells the story well enough: “A Growing Trend: Young, Liberal, and Open to Big Government.” But you already knew that. So, what’s (sort of) new here? First, consider this quote regarding attitudes about what government should and should not do: “Young people absolutely believe that there’s a role for government,”…
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As we observed in a  recent post on the February 2, 2013 issue of the Economist, the Nordic countries have been leading the world in a number of economic reforms. A short article in this issue continues exploring this theme and describes the role that has been played by new ideas about reform, especially those that reject traditional “left” or “right” perspectives.  Even more striking than the Nordic world’s commitment to balancing its books is its enthusiasm for experimenting…
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As I claimed in  a post last Thursday , the recent flurry of commentary about Jim Buchanan is most welcome and impressive, but it fails to capture his deepest contribution and the breadth of its relevance. In this post I will try to convey in plain language what I think those are. This is a long post, long enough to try the patience of most readers. So, for your convenience, let me first summarize: While Buchanan is best known…
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Donald Boudreaux and Alex Tabarrok have already provided very useful lists of commentary about the passing of Jim Buchanan. Here, I add my own perspectives, admittedly with some overlap. The New York Times obituary  is an excellent place to start and a solid overview of Buchanan’s life and work: A similar article at Bloomberg fills in additional interesting details. Also an excellent introduction to Buchanan’s life and work, George Mason University produced this video , “Daring to be Different,” in 2009. One of…
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Here are five observations to illustrate the breadth and depth of Jim Buchanan’s work. 1. The philosophical depth and political idealism of James M. Buchanan, from the early pages of The Calculus of Consent: Logical Foundations of Constitutional Democracy (1962), which he authored with Gordon Tullock: The Scholastic philosophers looked upon the tradesman, the merchant, and the moneylender in much the same way that many modern intellectuals look upon the political pressure group. Adam Smith and…
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In previous posts (available here and here ), we recommended the December 3, 2012 issue of Barron’s for its thoughtful book review of Madmen. Here’s another reason to pick up the issue (and, in general, to be a regular reader of that publication). Check out “ The Giving Generation ,” which profiles some of the new, young philanthropists who are thinking critically about how to “invest” their wealth to promote change. The individuals interviewed for this article are in one…
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How do political entrepreneurs learn from failure? Among market entrepreneurs — especially in Silicon Valley and other high-tech areas — evaluating mistakes is popular as a learning tool. It is hard to find new and better ways to add value for others — the essence of entrepreneurship — without being a good learner. Fortunately, an emerging body of resources is providing more information about failure, more stories from which to learn, and more insights on what…
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