Books

It might seem that contemporary economic theory offers a scientific account of choice among alternatives.  Yet this is only superficially the case; the behavior of the agents in most economic models is completely specified by preference functions, technological possibilities, and market interactions.  'Choice' is a misnomer for solution of one or another kind of optimization problem in such models....

The climate policy debate has been dominated by economic estimates of the costs of policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  Yet the models used to derive those estimates are based on assumptions that have largely gone untested.  The conventional approach embodies structural features that rule out alternative market outcomes.  In addition, the distribution of "climate rights" is crucial to determining the economic affects of various policies....