Publications by Daniel Klein

Publications by Daniel Klein

Unfolding the Allegory Behind Market image

Unfolding the Allegory Behind Market

Communication and Social Error and Correction
Daniel Klein | Feb 22, 2010
Adam Smith’s moral theory considered a number of sources of moral approval, and at each turn he invoked an accompanying spectator, however sketchy. In judging an action, at each turn the readers consult their sympathy with a spectator that is natural or proper to the occasion. In this paper the author suggests that common economic talk of market communication, market error and correction, and policy error and correction similarly invokes such a spectatorial being and similarly appeals to sympathy with such being.
Concatenate Coordination and Mutual Coordination image

Concatenate Coordination and Mutual Coordination

Daniel Klein, Aaron Orsborn | Oct 2009
This paper investigates the evolving meaning of the term coordination as used by economists. The paper is based on systematic electronic searches (on “coord,” etc.) of major works and leading journals.

Conservative Magazines and the Presumption of Liberty: A Content Analysis on Sex, Gambling, and Drugs

Daniel Klein, Jason Briggeman | Oct 2009
Conservatives say they are for small government and individual liberty, but a content analysis of leading conservative magazines shows that most have preponderantly failed to take pro-liberty positions on sex, gambling, and drugs. Besides many anti-liberty commissions, the magazines may be criticized for anti-liberty omission—that is, failing to oppose anti-liberty policies. Magazines investigated include National Review, The Weekly Standard, The American Enterprise, and The American Spectator. We find that National Review has had the strongest record on liberty on the issues treated, while the others have preponderantly failed to be pro-liberty or have even been anti-liberty.

Groupthink in Academia: Majoritarian Departmental Politics and the Professional Pyramid

Daniel Klein, Charlotta Stern | Mar 16, 2009
Although academia differs from the settings explored by group think theorists, it exhibits many of the same tendencies and failings. One result is the relative absence of classical-liberal and conservative viewpoints among humanities and social sciences professors, especially in the more elite departments.

Resorting to Statism to Find Meaning

Daniel Klein | Mar 01, 2009
This paper develops the idea of configuration of ownership to distinguish three primary political ideologies: (classical) liberalism, conservatism, and leftism.

Do Off-Label Drug Practices Argue against FDA Efficacy Requirements?

Alexander Tabarrok, Daniel Klein | Nov 15, 2008
Does off-label medicine use suggest that efficacy requirements should be placed on new uses of old drugs? Does it suggest that efficacy requirements on new drugs should be lifted? We explore these questions, and ask whether the response of many of the doctors exhibits the familiar behavior bias toward the status quo.

Colleagues, Where is the Market Failure? Economists on the FDA

Daniel Klein | Sep 01, 2008
This article treats three FDA-administered restrictions: the permitting of new drugs and devices, the control of manufacturer speech, and the imposition of prescription requirements. This article works from a point of view holding that there is no market-failure rationale for these three interventions.
Direct and Overall Liberty: Areas and Extent of Disagreement image

Direct and Overall Liberty: Areas and Extent of Disagreement

Daniel Klein, Michael J. Clark | Aug 2008
This paper explores possible disagreement between direct and overall liberty. Direct liberty corresponds to the inherent aspects of a policy reform (and its concomitant enforcement), while overall liberty subsumes also its wider and long-run aspects.  The article fortifies the liberty principle by arguing that the tension between direct and overall liberty is not so great as to undo its coherence and focalness.