Michael Munger
Senior Fellow
Michael Munger is a Professor of Political Science, Economics, and Public Policy at Duke University and Senior Fellow of the American Institute for Economic Research.
His degrees are from Davidson College, Washingon University in St. Louis, and Washington University.
Munger’s research interests include regulation, political institutions, and political economy.
Books by Michael Munger
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I See Dead Policies
“Firms can do anything they want. Just as long as they don’t charge a price that’s more than consumers think they should have to pay, the same as competitors, or less than other firms can match.” ~ Michael Munger
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To Consumers, All Costs are Transaction Costs
“Remember, transaction costs are triangulation, transfer, and trust.” ~ Michael Munger
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Wealth Taxes: The Tale of “Tuh”
“Wealth taxes are premised on the idea that since security services make wealth more valuable, the wealthy have to pay a share of the value ‘created’ by the state. But that’s ridiculous.”
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The Socialist Generation Debate
“The information required to ‘calculate’ the correct choice literally does not exist until market processes are allowed to generate information about the relative opportunity costs of various resources.” ~ Michael Munger
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Playing Chicken with a Stack of Steering Wheels
“People often complain about the ‘irrationality’ of politics, but there is nothing irrational about the process that has given rise to our crushing debt burden. Voters really do want lower deficits, provided it does not involve either cutting spending or raising taxes.” ~ Michael Munger
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Why Intellectuals Hate Al Czervik
“Power, by which I mean political power, is always zero-sum: if the intellectual elite has it, you and I don’t have it.” ~ Michael Munger
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All Housing is Still Affordable Housing: “Seen and Unseen” Edition
“The unseen cause of gentrification is the knee-jerk NIMBYism of affluent leftist neighborhood associations. And that causes the elimination of almost all affordable housing in the city, quickly.” ~ Michael Munger
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You Use the Roads, Don’t You?
“Having resources taken from you against your will, and then accepting the return of some of those resources, in the form of a monopoly road system, does not make you a free rider.” ~ Michael C. Munger
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An Approach to Teaching Rawls And Income Inequality
“Far from representing an outcome chosen behind the veil of ignorance, political pressures will always be driven by full knowledge of the benefits realized by self-interested actors, even if they mouth formulaic invocations of ‘social justice’ while they do it.” ~ Michael C. Munger
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Job Gentrification: Three Questions as a Way of Teaching About Minimum Wages
“If you force much higher wages — and a ‘living wage’ of $15/hour for an entry-level job in fast food is much higher — then you will ‘gentrify” jobs.’ ~ Michael C. Munger
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•
I See Dead Policies
“Firms can do anything they want. Just as long as they don’t charge a price that’s more than consumers think they should have to pay, the same as competitors, or less than other firms can match.” ~ Michael Munger
-
•
To Consumers, All Costs are Transaction Costs
“Remember, transaction costs are triangulation, transfer, and trust.” ~ Michael Munger
-
•
Wealth Taxes: The Tale of “Tuh”
“Wealth taxes are premised on the idea that since security services make wealth more valuable, the wealthy have to pay a share of the value ‘created’ by the state. But that’s ridiculous.”
-
•
The Socialist Generation Debate
“The information required to ‘calculate’ the correct choice literally does not exist until market processes are allowed to generate information about the relative opportunity costs of various resources.” ~ Michael Munger
-
•
Playing Chicken with a Stack of Steering Wheels
“People often complain about the ‘irrationality’ of politics, but there is nothing irrational about the process that has given rise to our crushing debt burden. Voters really do want lower deficits, provided it does not involve either cutting spending or raising taxes.” ~ Michael Munger
-
•
Why Intellectuals Hate Al Czervik
“Power, by which I mean political power, is always zero-sum: if the intellectual elite has it, you and I don’t have it.” ~ Michael Munger
-
•
All Housing is Still Affordable Housing: “Seen and Unseen” Edition
“The unseen cause of gentrification is the knee-jerk NIMBYism of affluent leftist neighborhood associations. And that causes the elimination of almost all affordable housing in the city, quickly.” ~ Michael Munger
-
•
You Use the Roads, Don’t You?
“Having resources taken from you against your will, and then accepting the return of some of those resources, in the form of a monopoly road system, does not make you a free rider.” ~ Michael C. Munger
-
•
An Approach to Teaching Rawls And Income Inequality
“Far from representing an outcome chosen behind the veil of ignorance, political pressures will always be driven by full knowledge of the benefits realized by self-interested actors, even if they mouth formulaic invocations of ‘social justice’ while they do it.” ~ Michael C. Munger
-
•
Job Gentrification: Three Questions as a Way of Teaching About Minimum Wages
“If you force much higher wages — and a ‘living wage’ of $15/hour for an entry-level job in fast food is much higher — then you will ‘gentrify” jobs.’ ~ Michael C. Munger