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The economic forces are too powerful for virtual instruction to go away after the pandemic. The important question is who will benefit financially, a Cornell economist says. Many smart people [...]

Byline: Robert H. Frank The economists and activists who hope to stop global warming know that small measures won't cut it. Which is why 'conscious consumption' - taking individual actions [...]

Byline: Robert H. Frank The economists and activists who hope to stop global warming know that small measures won't cut it. Which is why 'conscious consumption' -- taking individual actions [...]

The article offers the author's insights on the life and works of economist Ronald H. Coase, who died in September 2013 at the age of 102.

''IF you can't explain what you're doing in plain English, you're probably doing something wrong.'' With those words in a celebrated memo written shortly after he became chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board, Alfred E. Kahn urged the lawyers and economists on his staff to express themselves more clearly when drafting board rulings and letters for his signature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TEXTBOOK economic models assume that people are well informed about all the options they're considering. It's an absurd claim, of course, as most economists are well aware. Even so, when people confront opportunities to improve their position, they're generally quick to seize them. When energy prices rise sharply, for instance, consumers are quick to adjust their thermostats. So most economists are content with a slightly weaker assumption: that people respond in approximately rational ways to the information available to them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

FEW subjects rival the federal budget deficit in its power to provoke muddled thinking. It's a pity, because there are really only three basic truths that policy makers need to know about deficits: First, it's actually good to run them during deep economic downturns. Second, whether deficits are bad in the long run depends on how borrowed money is spent. And third, eliminating deficits entirely would not require any painful sacrifices. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

IF asked to identify the intellectual founder of their discipline, most economists today would probably cite Adam Smith. But that will change. Economists' forecasts generally aren't worth much, but I'll offer one that even my youngest colleagues won't survive to refute: If we posed the same question 100 years from now, most economists would instead cite Charles Darwin. Darwin, renowned for the theory of evolution, was a naturalist, not an economist, and his view of the competitive struggle was different from Smith's in subtle but profound ways. Growing evidence suggests that Darwin's view tracks economic reality much more closely. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

ADAM SMITH'S modern disciples are far more enthusiastic about his celebrated invisible-hand idea than he ever was. In their account, Smith's assertion was that purely selfish individuals are led by an invisible hand to produce the greatest good for all. Yet Smith himself was under no such illusion. On the contrary, the relevant quotation from his ''Wealth of Nations,'' which describes a profit-seeking business owner, is far more circumspect. It says that this owner ''is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention.'' It continues: ''Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was no part of it. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it.'' [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

DOES money buy happiness? This week, Senator Byron Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota, will join a long line of people who have taken serious stabs at trying to answer that thorny question. He will hold a hearing exploring whether traditional economic measures like per-capita income accurately capture people's sense of well-being. This has long been a contested issue. Although everyone concedes that income is an imperfect welfare measure, conservative economists have tended to emphasize its virtues while liberals have been more likely to stress its shortcomings. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents information on the economist's model of the informal market for marriage partners. The market resembles the supply and demand model of economic goods, which assume that people are rational and narrowly self-interested, like the homo economicus. Economic analysis of commitment problem that arises in searches for partners indicate the reluctance of rational person to marry homo economicus.

The article reports that well-known economist Milton Friedman was an architect of the most successful social welfare program. His proposal of negative income tax stated that replacement of existing welfare programs with a single cash transfer. Friedman was in favor of minimizing adverse economic incentives.

The article analyses why the Nobel prize in economics was never given to the famous economist, John Keneth Galbraith.

The article focuses on the case of a cancer patient deprived of a life-sustaining treatment in a hospital because of financial reasons. In economic aspect, one economist suggests that such case is economically favorable. This remark had been criticized and argued by many experts.

Reports on the obscure disappearance of the theory of consumer behavior made by economist James S. Duesenberry, which argued that families look not only to their own living standards of others but also to their own past experience, from modern economics textbooks.

BELIEVE it or not, times are getting better. At least that's what the dry statistics keep telling us. Industrial production, G.D.P. -- the kind of figures that Washington and Wall Street sweat over -- suggest that the economy is on the mend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]