Donald J. Boudreaux
Associate Senior Research Fellow
Donald J. Boudreaux is a Associate Senior Research Fellow with the American Institute for Economic Research and affiliated with the F.A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University; a Mercatus Center Board Member; and a professor of economics and former economics-department chair at George Mason University. He is the author of the books The Essential Hayek, Globalization, Hypocrites and Half-Wits, and his articles appear in such publications as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, US News & World Report as well as numerous scholarly journals. He writes a blog called Cafe Hayek and a regular column on economics for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Boudreaux earned a PhD in economics from Auburn University and a law degree from the University of Virginia.
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On the Negative Consequences of Price Floors
“As with price ceilings, if more people understood the full economic consequences of price floors, public support for the especially pernicious piece of legislation called ‘the minimum wage’ would plummet.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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Five Negative Consequences of Price Ceilings
“The public often supports price ceilings – support that would surely disappear if the public understood the basic economics of this harmful government intervention.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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Assessing Risks Accurately Requires Accurate Information
“Each of us in our private lives has strong incentives to make these assessments correctly, for if we don’t, we personally suffer. Politicians and bureaucrats, in contrast, not only do not personally suffer if they impose excessive precautions, they are often lauded for doing so.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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Four Amazing Differences
“What causes the great and overwhelmingly successful coordination across the globe of the productive efforts of billions of strangers? And why is this coordination so silent and incessant that we take it for granted? We hardly notice it.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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More On Nancy MacLean’s Egregious ‘Scholarship’
“MacLean continues to tell fantastically false fables about prominent classical-liberal scholars, many of whom are now dead and, hence, unable to defend themselves from being falsely portrayed by MacLean as cartoonish villains.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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Looking Back on the Publication and Reception of Democracy in Chains
“I suspect that MacLean really believes that her fables capture and convey important truths. But whether in this assessment I am correct or incorrect, one conclusion is airtight: As a scholar, Nancy MacLean is an utter disgrace.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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This Old House Testifies to the Marvels of the Market Economy
“It’s impossible to convey in words the amount of specialized knowledge, as well as the amazingness of modern building materials and tools, that are routinely, and entertainingly displayed in each and every episode of This Old House.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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Beware the Allure of Simple ‘Solutions’
“Social engineering appears doable only to those persons who, seeing only a relatively few surface phenomena, are blind to the astonishing complexity that is ever-churning beneath the surface to create those surface phenomena.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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The Value of High Costs
“As the late Nobel-laureate economist James Buchanan explained in his 1969 book, Cost and Choice, cost is the barrier to choice. Cost is the benefit that a chooser believes he or she sacrifices whenever he or she makes a choice.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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Remarks Delivered at a May 2022 Covid Policy Conference
“Mainstream economists, in my opinion, are too often too lazy when thinking about externalities – a laziness that showed up in a slew of poor commentary on COVID and COVID policy.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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•
On the Negative Consequences of Price Floors
“As with price ceilings, if more people understood the full economic consequences of price floors, public support for the especially pernicious piece of legislation called ‘the minimum wage’ would plummet.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
-
•
Five Negative Consequences of Price Ceilings
“The public often supports price ceilings – support that would surely disappear if the public understood the basic economics of this harmful government intervention.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
-
•
Assessing Risks Accurately Requires Accurate Information
“Each of us in our private lives has strong incentives to make these assessments correctly, for if we don’t, we personally suffer. Politicians and bureaucrats, in contrast, not only do not personally suffer if they impose excessive precautions, they are often lauded for doing so.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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•
Four Amazing Differences
“What causes the great and overwhelmingly successful coordination across the globe of the productive efforts of billions of strangers? And why is this coordination so silent and incessant that we take it for granted? We hardly notice it.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
-
•
More On Nancy MacLean’s Egregious ‘Scholarship’
“MacLean continues to tell fantastically false fables about prominent classical-liberal scholars, many of whom are now dead and, hence, unable to defend themselves from being falsely portrayed by MacLean as cartoonish villains.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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•
Looking Back on the Publication and Reception of Democracy in Chains
“I suspect that MacLean really believes that her fables capture and convey important truths. But whether in this assessment I am correct or incorrect, one conclusion is airtight: As a scholar, Nancy MacLean is an utter disgrace.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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•
This Old House Testifies to the Marvels of the Market Economy
“It’s impossible to convey in words the amount of specialized knowledge, as well as the amazingness of modern building materials and tools, that are routinely, and entertainingly displayed in each and every episode of This Old House.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
-
•
Beware the Allure of Simple ‘Solutions’
“Social engineering appears doable only to those persons who, seeing only a relatively few surface phenomena, are blind to the astonishing complexity that is ever-churning beneath the surface to create those surface phenomena.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
-
•
The Value of High Costs
“As the late Nobel-laureate economist James Buchanan explained in his 1969 book, Cost and Choice, cost is the barrier to choice. Cost is the benefit that a chooser believes he or she sacrifices whenever he or she makes a choice.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
-
•
Remarks Delivered at a May 2022 Covid Policy Conference
“Mainstream economists, in my opinion, are too often too lazy when thinking about externalities – a laziness that showed up in a slew of poor commentary on COVID and COVID policy.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux