Tag: decisions
To Reduce Concussions in the NFL, Reduce the Amount of Equipment
October 4, 2016 | Post
When the costs of risky behavior are reduced, people tend to increase the amount of risky behavior they engage in.
How Economics Can Explain Foreign Policy Failures
September 1, 2016 | Post
Why do foreign policy adventures so often go awry? In this week’s Learn Liberty video, Professor Abby Hall Blanco reveals how economic principles–like incentives and constraints—can explain the frequent poor outcomes of foreign policy. Incentives are usually defined by economists as the evaluation of the costs and benefits of a particular decision. But incentives may […]
Nudge Theory: How Policymakers Secretly Influence You to Make the Decisions They Want You to Make
August 22, 2016 | Post
Free market economists argue that individuals make the best choices for themselves because they are the most aware of their specific preferences. But what happens when people come across decisions where they need specialized knowledge? How do you influence other people’s decisions in this case? In the Learn Liberty video below, Professor Antony Davies and graduate student […]
When to Use Heuristics and When to Use Rational Thought
August 20, 2016 | Post
Doing the research necessary to make good choices can be very time consuming. That’s why, as we learned in the last video, people resort to using heuristics to make better decisions. In the Learn Liberty video below, Professor Antony Davies and graduate student Erika Davies explain how people sometimes rely too heavily on heuristics, which can lead […]