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December 9, 2021
Pandemics and Policy

Economic Freedom and Resilience: New Evidence from the 1918 Pandemic
This essay presents new research that shows the importance of economic freedom—which is taken here as an indicator of institutional quality—in mitigating the damage of pandemics and epidemics.
By Vincent Geloso
September 9, 2021
Pandemics and Policy

The COVID-19 Case for Bigger Government Is Weak
The cross‐country experience with COVID-19 offers little support for the notion that a more expansive, powerful, or centralized U.S. federal government would have handled this pandemic better.
By Ryan Bourne
August 26, 2021
Pandemics and Policy

Society Will Never Be Free of COVID-19—It’s Time to Embrace Harm Reduction
Policymakers should accept the fact that COVID-19 will become endemic and adopt the vision of the harm reduction movement that grew up in response to the crisis created by drug prohibition.
By Jeffrey A. Singer
February 24, 2021
Pandemics and Policy

The Pandemic Does Not Demand Government Micromanagement of Global Supply Chains
Evidence and analysis refute current arguments that economic nationalism would bolster the U.S. industrial base (and thus national resiliency). Instead, American protectionism has been repeatedly found to weaken the U.S. manufacturing sector and the economy more broadly.
By Scott Lincicome
January 28, 2021
Pandemics and Policy

COVID-19 Policy: A Failure of Economic Thinking
A host of policy decisions by politicians and regulators made the COVID-19 crisis worse, whether by facilitating the wider spread of the disease or harming economic welfare unnecessarily. Behind many bad calls lay a failure to think as a good economist would.
By Ryan Bourne
January 8, 2021
Pandemics and Policy

When Workplace Safety Is Illegal
Both age and disability discrimination laws are full of unintended effects, including the hindering of safe reopening of workplaces during the pandemic.
By Walter Olson
December 9, 2020
Pandemics and Policy

Higher Education after COVID-19
Being present on a college campus was once inevitably part of obtaining a college education. COVID-19 has helped demonstrate that instruction and tutoring can be provided online.
By Vance Fried and Byron Schlomach
December 2, 2020
Pandemics and Policy

Immigration Policy by Presidential Decree
The new immigration system has eliminated the core principles of immigration law and replaced them with the current president’s own preferences. It’s time for Congress to rectify it.
By David J. Bier and Alex Nowrasteh
November 18, 2020
Pandemics and Policy

Maintaining Distance between Monetary and Fiscal Policy
Adopting a rules-based approach to the conduct of monetary policy would help safeguard central bank independence and promote both monetary and financial stability.
By James A. Dorn
October 22, 2020
Pandemics and Policy

Ground Proposals for “Helicopter Money”
“Helicopter money” is a fascinating theoretical construct that has proven useful in advancing economists’ understanding of various subtle points of monetary theory. But it risks undermining both Congress’s power of the purse and the Federal Reserve System’s already tenuous independence.
By George Selgin
September 15, 2020
Pandemics and Policy

Balancing Tradeoffs between Liberties and Lives
Society faces a tradeoff between greater health versus higher gross domestic product and greater freedom in choosing how much, and what kind of, social distancing policies to impose.
By Jeffrey Miron and Peter Van Doren
September 15, 2020
Pandemics and Policy

Protect Privacy When Contact Tracing
Because contact tracing technologies analyze sensitive information about citizens’ locations, they raise civil liberties concerns. Here’s how lawmakers can make them effective and protective of sensitive data.
By Julian Sanchez and Matthew Feeney
September 15, 2020
Pandemics and Policy

The Pandemic Does Not Justify Protectionism or Deglobalization
International trade and cross‐border investment produce some degree of reliance and risk, but in policymakers’ rush to indict trade and globalization, they dismiss the enormous benefits that Americans get from participating in the global economy as workers, consumers, producers, and investors.
By Daniel J. Ikenson and Simon Lester
September 15, 2020
Pandemics and Policy

When and How We Should “Trust the Science”
The essential problem with the role of science in public policy is that some scientists, most politicians, and the public want science to do more than it can.
By Peter Van Doren
September 15, 2020
Pandemics and Policy

Reform Regulation of Health Care Providers
The COVID-19 pandemic made state and federal lawmakers acutely aware of how state‐based regulation of clinicians contributes to the overall shortage of health care providers and obstructs their rapid response to public health emergencies.
By Jeffrey A. Singer