Mainstream Economics

Overview

In lecture six, we consider the work of mainstream economists outside the Austrian, Chicago, and UCLA Schools who contributed to free market economics and critiques of government regulation. We examine Robert Crandall’s work on pollution trading, Clifford Winston’s deregulation studies, Edward Glaeser’s housing research, Martin Feldstein’s tax analysis, Douglas Irwin’s trade work, Jagdish Bhagwati’s free trade principles, David Neumark’s minimum wage studies, and Michael Clemens’s immigration research. The lecture concludes with Thomas Sowell’s work on data analysis, wealth mobility, and individual choice, showing how economic research across diverse institutions highlights the benefits of free markets and the costs of government intervention.