The Half-Life of Policy Rationales: How New Technology Affects Old Policy Issues

by Fred E. Foldvary, Daniel B. Klein

Overview

The Half-Life of Policy Rationales argues that the appropriateness of policy depends on the state of technology, and that the justifications for many public policies are dissolving as technology advances. As new detection and metering technologies are being developed for highways, parking, and auto emissions, and information becomes more accessible and user-friendly, this volume argues that quality and safety are better handled by the private sector. As for public utilities, new means of producing and delivering electricity, water, postal, and telephone services dissolve the old natural-monopolies rationales of the government.
This volume includes essays on marine resources, lighthouses, highways, parking, auto emissions, consumer product safety, money and banking, medical licensing, electricity, water delivery, postal service, community governance, and endangered species. The editors have mobilized the hands-on knowledge of field experts to develop theories about technology and public policy. The Half-Life of Policy Rationales will be of interest to readers in public policy, technology, property rights, and economics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814747766
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	05/03/2003
Series:	Cato Institute Book
Pages:	276
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.81(d)

About the Author

Fred E. Foldvary is a Lecturer in Economics at Santa Clara University. He is author of Public Goods and Private Communities and Dictionary of Free Market Economics.

Daniel B. Klein is Associate Professor of Economics at Santa Clara University. He is co-author of Curb Rights: A Foundation for Free Enterprise in Urban Transit and editor of Reputation: Studies in the Voluntary Elicitation of Good Conduct and What Do Economists Contribute?, available from NYU Press.

Table of Contents

part i Metering, Excluding, and Charging
1 Technology, Marine Conservation, and Fisheries Management
2 The Lighthouse as a Private-Sector Collective Good
3 Motorway Financing and Provision: Technology Favors a New Approach
4 Buying Time at the Curb
5 Fencing the Airshed: Using Remote Sensing to Police Auto Emissions
part ii Quality Assurance and Consumer Protection
6 Technology and the Case for Free Banking
7 Consumer Protection Regulation and Information on the Internet
8 Medical Licensing: Existing Public Policy and Technological Change
part iii Natural Monopoly?
9 Technology and Electricity: Overcoming the Umbilical Mentality
10 Avoiding the Grid: Technology and the Decentralization of Water
11 Technological Change and the Case for Government Intervention in Postal Services
part iv Other Areas of Policy
12 The Entrepreneurial Community in Light of Advancing Business Practices and Technologies
13 Technology and the Protection of Endangered Species

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Points out a serious gap in the current theory of economic policy: it treats the current state of technology as fixed. New technologies can in fact solve many problems that otherwise appear to be market failures. This volume is one of the freshest and most vital contributions to the public policy debate in years.”
-Tyler Cowen,George Mason University and author of Creative Destruction: How Globalization Is Changing the World's Cultures

“The thoughtful collection of papers shows that developments and technology will in the future preferentially favor individuals over governments as long as we get the policy framework right.“
-Terence Kealey,author of The Economic Laws of Scientific Research

“Whether you are interested in the role of government and markets, or the role of technology in society, or in specific policy areas, Half-Life makes for stimulating reading. Foldvary and Klein should be commended for bringing together many disparate policy areas under one roof, and assessing the role of technology in promoting choice, freedom, and prosperity.”
-Knowledge, Technology, & Policy

,

“The Half-Life of Policy Rationales is one clever book. Nothing in recent years on economics of new technology comes close.”
-The Independent Review

,

“This makes for provocative and profitable reading.”
-Markets & Morality

Editorial Reviews

"The thoughtful collection of papers shows that developments and technology will in the future preferentially favor individuals over governments as long as we get the policy framework right."

Terence Kealey

"This makes for provocative and profitable reading."

Markets & Morality

"Points out a serious gap in the current theory of economic policy: it treats the current state of technology as fixed. New technologies can in fact solve many problems that otherwise appear to be market failures. This volume is one of the freshest and most vital contributions to the public policy debate in years."

Tyler Cowen

"The Half-Life of Policy Rationales is one clever book. Nothing in recent years on economics of new technology comes close."

The Independent Review

"Whether you are interested in the role of government and markets, or the role of technology in society, or in specific policy areas, Half-Life makes for stimulating reading. Foldvary and Klein should be commended for bringing together many disparate policy areas under one roof, and assessing the role of technology in promoting choice, freedom, and prosperity."

Knowledge

Points out a serious gap in the current theory of economic policy: it treats the current state of technology as fixed. New technologies can in fact solve many problems that otherwise appear to be market failures. This volume is one of the freshest and most vital contributions to the public policy debate in years.”
-Tyler Cowen,George Mason University and author of Creative Destruction: How Globalization Is Changing the World's Cultures

From the Publisher