One sign of a healthy local economy is how many new businesses are started each year. Strong growth in new businesses has been shown to correlate with increased household income and decreased unemployment.

Most cities see business startups of one type or another each year, but not every city sees as many as others. The number of startups is influenced heavily both by local economic conditions and the regulatory environment.

Research has paid extensive attention to issues surrounding charitable giving, which amounted to $410.02 billion in the United States or 2.1% of the gross domestic product in 2017. Specifically, marketing researchers have put a great emphasis on understanding various factors influencing charitable giving decisions such as donor’s moral identity, donation appeals, victims’ emotional expression, identity congruency, and cultural norms. However, it is not clear whether charitable giving decisions might be affected by how people perceive the society they belong to.

The spread of COVID-19 and the resulting shutdown of large swaths of the U.S. economy led to large increases in unemployment. State unemployment insurance programs (UI) - designed for the purpose of providing support for the jobless in normal economic recessions - were overwhelmed by the larger-than-usual increase in unemployment claims. How the federal government reacted - and the differential amounts of income-replacement that flow to jobless individuals as a result - can have deep implications for the pace of economic recovery in 2021.

The recent debate over an increase in the federal minimum wage to $15 from its current level of $7.25 has brought public attention to an ongoing debate within the economics community over the impacts of minimum wages generally. Some studies indicate that minimum wage increases have impacts that are more muted than economic theory might predict. Other studies indicate that employment of low-skilled workers suffer and those types of job opportunities become more scarce as a result of a minimum wage.

While socio-economic status (SES) is typically defined as one’s relative economic and social position in the social structure, research often measures or manipulates SES with a focus on one’s financial placement in relation to others. Having more or fewer socioeconomic resources determines the number of choices an individual has in his or her life. Indeed, high SES people have more opportunities to positively shape their lives (e.g., education, network) while low SES people often lack such opportunities.

The relationship between capitalism and democracy has long been one of the most important areas of study in political science, economics and sociology. Today, many are pessimistic about the stability of democracy in rich countries and the chances for democratization in the developing world.

Good tax policy is important in normal times. It’s certainly even more important in the unusual times we live in today.

Businesses and workers are experiencing substantial hardship due to the pandemic and various  government mandates to temporarily cease operations. The economic recovery that will take shape as the pandemic begins to wane will be shaped by how state policymakers deal with new economic realities.

Many people's desire to achieve economic success is often driven by their materialistic longings. This is consistent with a fact that the majority of Americans have a value system called materialism that emphasizes the importance of material possessions and acquisition in their lives. Although materialistic people tend to work harder and have higher incomes than nonmaterialistic people, empirical evidence shows that materialistic people experience lower well-being.

The adage goes that history repeats itself. Today we are witnesses to a global pandemic that has caused a near asphyxiation of economic activity, killed many thousands and made financial markets highly volatile. This year is the ter-centenary of a somewhat similar scenario which may be categorised as two bubbles and a plague. The bubbles were those of the Mississippi System in France and the South Sea Bubble in Great Britain. The plague was that which devastated the population of Marseille and its surrounding areas in the second half of 1720.

Over the past month, one of the things I’ve been doing is writing a piece for the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Libertarianism (edited by Matt Zwolinski) on the relation of Chicago Economics and Libertarianism. Here are some of the things I’ve had a chance to sort out while writing the essay.