Econ Journal Watch

Scholarly Comments on Academic Economics

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January 2013: Table of Contents January 2013; In Memoriam: James M. Buchanan; The Max U Approach: Prudence Only, or Not Even Prudence? A Smithian Perspective by David Lipka; Model Distraction: A Comment on Daveri and Tabellini by Andrea Imperia; Did John Lott Provide Bad Data to the NRC? A Note on Aneja, Donohue, and Zhang by Carlisle E. Moody…; Substance vs. Sideshows in the More Guns, Less Crime Debate: A Comment on Moody, Lott, and Marvell by Abhay Aneja…; Did Jose Canseco Really Improve the Performance of His Teammates by Spreading Steroids? A Critique of Gould and Kaplan by John Charles Bradbury; The Peer Effect of Jose Canseco: A Reply to J. C. Bradbury by Eric D. Gould…; Reply to Deirdre McCloskey and Stephen Ziliak on Statistical Significance by Thomas Mayer; We Agree That Statistical Significance Proves Essentially Nothing: A Rejoinder to Thomas Mayer by Stephen T. Ziliak…; Paul Krugman Denies Having Concurred With an Administration Forecast: A Note by David O. Cushman; Economics Professors’ Voting, Policy Views, Favorite Economists, and Frequent Lack of Consensus by Daniel B. Klein…; Euro Politics: An Interview with Roland Vaubel by Roland Vaubel
September 2012: Table of Contents September 2012; Big Questions and Poor Economics: Banerjee and Duflo on Schooling in Developing Countries by James Tooley; Why the Denial? Low-Cost Private Schools in Developing Countries and Their Contributions to Education by Pauline Dixon; Was Occupational Licensing Good for Minorities? A Critique of Marc Law and Mindy Marks by Daniel B. Klein…; Occupational Licensing and Minorities: A Reply to Klein, Powell, and Vorotnikov by Marc T. Law…; Ziliak and McCloskey’s Criticisms of Significance Tests: An Assessment by Thomas Mayer; Statistical Significance in the New Tom and the Old Tom: A Reply to Thomas Mayer by Deirdre N. McCloskey…; Mankiw vs. DeLong and Krugman on the CEA’s Real GDP Forecasts in Early 2009: What Might a Time Series Econometrician Have Said? by David O. Cushman; Rating Government Bonds: Can We Raise Our Grade? by Marc D. Joffe
May 2012: Table of Contents May 2012; Freedom Versus Coercion in Industrial Ecology: A Reply to Boons by Pierre Desrochers; Freedom Versus Coercion in Industrial Ecology: Mind the Gap! by Frank Boons; Fact Versus Conjecture in the History of Industrial Waste Utilization by Christine Meisner Rosen; Race, Ethnicity, and Baseball Card Prices: A Replication, Correction, and Extension of Hewitt, Muñoz, Oliver, and Regoli by David W. Findlay…; Supplement to “Race, Ethnicity, and Baseball Card Prices: A Replication, Correction, and Extension of Hewitt, Muñoz, Oliver, and Regoli” by David W. Findlay…; Beyond Race Cards in America’s Pastime: An Appreciative Reply to Findlay and Santos by Robert Muñoz, Jr.; Characteristics of the Members of Twelve Economic Associations: Voting, Policy Views, and Favorite Economists by Daniel B. Klein…; The Transmission of the Ideals of Economic Freedom by F. A. Hayek
January 2012: Table of Contents January 2012; Editor’s Notes: Acknowledgments 2010-11 by Daniel B. Klein; The Unemployment Impact of the 2008 Extension of Unemployment Insurance: As High as Robert Barro Suggested? by Steven D. Mullins; Introduction to Symposium on U.S. Sovereign Debt Crisis: Tipping-Point Scenarios and Crash Dynamics by Tyler Cowen; Some Possible Consequences of a U.S. Government Default by Jeffrey Rogers Hummel; The Bond Market Wins by Garett Jones; How a Default Might Play Out by Arnold Kling; Courting an Avoidable Financial Crisis by Joseph J. Minarik; How and Why a U.S. Sovereign Debt Crisis Could Occur by Peter J. Wallison
September 2011: Table of Contents September 2011; Property: A Bundle of Rights? Prologue to the Property Symposium by Daniel B. Klein…; Bundle-of-Sticks Notions in Legal and Economic Scholarship by Eric R. Claeys; Two Cheers for the Bundle-of-Sticks Metaphor, Three Cheers for Merrill and Smith by Robert C. Ellickson; Bundle-of-Rights Theory as a Bulwark Against Statist Conceptions of Private Property by Richard A. Epstein; The Regulative Function of Property Rights by Larissa Katz; The Property Prism by Thomas W. Merrill; The False Promise of the Right to Exclude by Adam Mossoff; A Bundle Theorist Holds On to His Collection of Sticks by Stephen R. Munzer; Potentiality, Actuality, and “Stick”-Theory by J. E. Penner; Property Is Not Just a Bundle of Rights by Henry E. Smith
May 2011: Table of Contents May 2011; Adam Smith and Liberal Economics: Reading the Minimum Wage Debate of 1795-96 by Christopher Martin; Economics Professors’ Favorite Economic Thinkers, Journals, and Blogs (along with Party and Policy Views) by William L. Davis…; Richard T. Ely: The Confederate Flag of the AEA? by Clifford F. Thies…; Economic Enlightenment Revisited: New Results Again Find Little Relationship Between Education and Economic Enlightenment but Vitiate Prior Evidence of the Left Being Worse by Daniel B. Klein…; Remarks from 1809 by Dupont de Nemours on Adam Smith by Pierre-Samuel Dupont de Nemours…; An Award for Calling the Crash by Mason Gaffney
January 2011: Table of Contents January 2011; Unfortunately Unfamiliar with Robert Higgs and Others: A Rejoinder to Gauti Eggertsson on the 1930s by Steven Horwitz; Constraints on Housing Supply: Natural and Regulatory by Wendell Cox; Dropping the Geographic-Constraints Variable Makes Only a Minor Difference: Reply to Cox by Haifang Huang…; Troubling Research on Troubled Assets: Charles Zheng on the U.S. Toxic Asset Auction Plan by Linus Wilson; Growth Accelerations Revisited by Guo Xu; Advanced Placement Economics: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly by Tawni H. Ferrarini…; The Ideological Profile of Harvard University Press: Categorizing 494 Books Published 2000-2010 by David Gordon…; The Never to Be Forgotten Hutcheson: Excerpts from W.R. Scott by W.R. Scott
September 2010: Table of Contents September 2010; A Reply to Steven Horwitz’s Commentary on “Great Expectations and the End of the Depression” by Gauti B. Eggertsson; A Life among the Econ, Particularly at UCLA by William R. Allen; Economics, Economists, and Economic Policy: Modern American Experiences by William R. Allen; Czech Economists on Economic Policy: A Survey by Daniel Stastny; Economist Petitions: Ideology Revealed by David Hedengren…; Do Economists Reach a Conclusion on Organ Liberalization? by Jon Diesel; The Unenlightening “Economic Enlightenment in Relation to College-going, Ideology and Other Variables” by Roderick Hill; Economic Enlightenment Poll Creates More Heat Than Light by E. D. Kain; Identification Problems in Economic Enlightenment Surveys: A Comment on Buturovic and Klein by Daniel P. Kuehn; A Rigged Test: A Critical Look at Buturovic and Klein’s Conception of “Economic Enlightenment” by David F. Ruccio
May 2010: Table of Contents May 2010; Econometric Errors in an Applied Economics Article by Dimitris Hatzinikolaou; The Euro: It Happened, It’s Not Reversible, So… Make It Work by Lars Jonung…; When the White House Changes Party, Do Economists Change Their Tune on Budget Deficits? by Brett Barkley; Convictions Opposed to Certain Popular Opinions: The 1903 Anti-Protectionism Letter Supported by 16 British Economists; 44 Economists Answer Questionnaire on the Pre-Market Approval of Drugs and Devices by Jason Briggeman…; 44 Transcripts: Economists Who Answered the Questionnaire on the Pre-Market Approval of Drugs and Devices by Jason Briggeman…; Economic Enlightenment in Relation to College-going, Ideology, and Other Variables: A Zogby Survey of Americans by Zeljka Buturovic…
January 2010: Table of Contents January 2010; Editor’s Notes: Acknowledgements 2008-09 by Daniel Klein; It Can’t Happen, It’s a Bad Idea, It Won’t Last: U.S. Economists on the EMU and the Euro, 1989-2002 by Lars Jonung…; I Was a Euro Enthusiast by C. Fred Bergsten; A Political Scientist’s Perspective by Jeffry Frieden; Understanding the Euro Requires Political Economy, Not Just Economics by Charles Goodhart; Reflections on Currency Reform and the Euro by Steve H. Hanke; It Has Happened—And It Will Continue to Succeed by Otmar Issing; There Was No Analytical Alternative to the Theory of Optimum Currency Areas by Peter B. Kenen; Mundell Changed His Mind by Ronald I. McKinnon; The Secret of the Euro’s Success by George Selgin; The Euro and the German Veto by Roland Vaubel; Outliers and the Halloween Effect: Comment on Maberly and Pierce by H. Douglas Witte; 305 Economists Called to Answer Questionnaire on the Pre-Market Approval of Drugs and Devices by Daniel B. Klein…
September 2009: Table of Contents September 2009; Great Apprehensions, Prolonged Depression: Gauti Eggertsson on the 1930s by Steven Horwitz; The Policy Views of American Economic Association Members: The Results of a New Survey by Robert Whaples; Confession of an Economist: Writing to Impress Rather than Inform by David R. Hakes; Preference Falsification in Teaching by Stephen Kinsella; Confessions of a College Non-Economizer by William Patrick Leonard; Economic Dissociative Identity Disorder: The Math Gamer, the Anti-Policy Econometrician and the Narrative Political Economist by Bruce L. Benson; A Reply to Daniel Klein on Adam Smith and the Invisible Hand by Gavin Kennedy; The Scottish Tradition in Economic Thought by Alec Lawrence Macfie
May 2009: Table of Contents May 2009; Occupational Licensing: Scant Treatment in Labor Texts by E. Frank Stephenson…; Do Economists Believe American Democracy Is Working? by William L. Davis…; The Debate on Shall Issue Laws, Continued by Carlisle E. Moody…; More Guns, Less Crime Fails Again: The Latest Evidence from 1977 – 2006 by Ian Ayres…; Adam Smith and the Invisible Hand: From Metaphor to Myth by Gavin Kennedy; In Adam Smith’s Invisible Hands: Comment on Gavin Kennedy by Daniel B. Klein; Intellectual Hazard: A Liberal Selection of Quotations by Daniel B. Klein
January 2009: Table of Contents January 2009; Editorial Notes January 2009; Goldin and Katz and Education Policy Failings in Historical Perspective by Arnold Kling…; Some Anomalies Arising from Bandwagons that Impart Upward Sloping Segments to Market Demand by Micha Gisser…; Yet Another Refutation of the More Guns, Less Crime Hypothesis – With Some Help From Moody and Marvell by Ian Ayres…; Does Economics Have a Gender? by Christina Jonung…; Rent Control: Do Economists Agree? by Blair Jenkins; Desperately Seeking Smithians: Responses to the Questionnaire about Building an Identity by Daniel B. Klein
September 2008: Table of Contents September 2008; The Debate on Shall-Issue Laws by Carlisle E. Moody…; Do Economists Reach a Conclusion on Subsidies for Sports Franchises, Stadiums, and Mega-Events? by Dennis Coates…; Colleagues, Where Is the Market Failure? Economists on the FDA by Daniel B. Klein; The Curtailment of Critical Commentary in Australian Economics by Brian Dollery…; The Present State of Economic Science by Glenn E. Hoover; Toward a Public and Professional Identity for Our Economics by Daniel B. Klein; Uncovering the Costs of the Iraq War by Fred E. Foldvary; Correspondence September 2008
May 2008: Table of Contents May 2008; The Soviet Economic Decline Revisited by Brendan K. Beare; Reply to Brendan Beare by William Easterly…; The Diluted Economics of Casinos and Crime: A Rejoinder to Grinols and Mustard’s Reply by Douglas M. Walker; Connecting Casinos and Crime: More Corrections of Walker by Earl L. Grinols…; Smoking in Restaurants: Rejoinder to Alamar and Glantz by David R. Henderson; Externalities in the Workplace: A Response to a Rejoinder to a Response to a Response to a Paper by Benjamin C. Alamar…; Reaching the Top? On Gender Balance in the Economics Profession by Christina Jonung…; On Gender Balance in the Economics Profession by Ann Mari May; Mr. Max and the Substantial Errors of Manly Economics by Deirdre N. McCloskey; Diversity in Tastes, Values, and Preferences: Comment on Jonung and Ståhlberg by Catherine Hakim; Preferences Underlying Women’s Choices in Academic Economics by John A. Johnson; What Is the Right Number of Women? Hints and Puzzles from Cognitive Ability Research by Garett Jones; Honestly, Who Else Would Fund Such Research? Reflections of a Non-Smoking Scholar by Michael L. Marlow
January 2008: Table of Contents January 2008; Foreword: Editor’s Report January 2008; Do Casinos Really Cause Crime? by Douglas M. Walker; Correctly Critiquing Casino-Crime Causality by Earl L. Grinols…; Highway Penetration of Central Cities: Not a Major Cause of Suburbanization by Wendell Cox…; Reply to Cox, Gordon, and Redfearn’s Comment on “Did Highways Cause Suburbanization?” by Nathaniel Baum-Snow; Growth Accelerations and Regime Changes: A Correction by Richard Jong-A-Pin…; The EITC Disincentive: A Reply to Dr. Hilary Hoynes by Paul Trampe; Gulphs in Mankind’s Career of Prosperity: A Critique of Adam Smith on Interest Rate Restrictions by Jeremy Bentham; The Market for Lemmas: Evidence That Complex Models Rarely Operate in Our World by Philip R. P. Coelho…; “Theory” and “Models”: Terminology Through the Looking Glass by Robert S. Goldfarb…; Left Out: A Critique of Paul Krugman Based on a Comprehensive Account of His New York Times Columns, 1997 through 2006 by Daniel B. Klein…; Taking Stock of Paul Krugman’s 654 New York Times Columns, 1997 through 2006 by Harika Anna Barlett…; Sounds of Silence
September 2007: Table of Contents September 2007; Smoking in Restaurants: Who Best to Set the House Rules? by David R. Henderson; Smoking in Restaurants: A Reply to David Henderson by Benjamin C. Alamar…; Deposit Insurance and Moral Hazard: Capital, Risk, Malfeasance, and Mismanagement by Gary Richardson; Quantifying Moral Hazard: A Reply to Gary Richardson by Linda M. Hooks…; The EITC Disincentive: The Effects on Hours Worked from the Phase-out of the Earned Income Tax Credit by Paul Trampe; The EITC Disincentive: A Reply to Paul Trampe by Hilary Hoynes; Got Replicability? The Journal of Money, Credit and Banking Archive by B. D. McCullough; Thriving at Amazon: How Schumpeter Lives in Books Today by Arthur M. Diamond, Jr.; Economists Against Smoot-Hawley by Editors; Correspondence September 2007
May 2007: Table of Contents May 2007; Symposium Introduction: Trailblazers Too Lightly Mentioned? by Editors; The Economic Analysis of Constitutions: Fatalism Versus Vitalism by Charles B. Blankart…; The Empirical Institutions-Growth Literature: Is Something Amiss at the Top? by John W. Dawson; Peter Bauer: Blazing the Trail of Development by Ian Vasquez; Model Building versus Theorizing: The Paucity of Theory in the Journal of Economic Theory by Daniel B. Klein…; The Role of Economists in Liberalizing Swedish Agriculture by Henrik Lindberg; Where Would Adam Smith Publish Today? The Near Absence of Math-free Research in Top Journals by Daniel Sutter…; The Internet and the Structure of Discourse: The Websites of Economists at Harvard and George Mason by Daniel J. D'Amico…
January 2007: Table of Contents January 2007; In Memoriam: Milton Friedman; Empire: Public Goods and Bads by Christopher J. Coyne…; Death and Taxes, Including Inflation: the Public versus Economists by Jeffrey Rogers Hummel; Textbooks and Pure Fiscal Policy: The Neglect of Monetary Basics by Lee C. Spector…; Handling Economic Freedom in Growth Regressions: Suggestions for Clarification by Julio H. Cole…; Handling Economic Freedom in Growth Regressions: A Reply to Cole and Lawson by Jakob De Haan…; Do Economists Reach a Conclusion on Household and Municipal Recycling? by Matthew Gunter; The Practical Utility of Economic Science by Edwin Cannan; Reasons for Supporting the Minimum Wage: Asking Signatories of the “Raise the Minimum Wage” Statement by Daniel B. Klein…
September 2006: Table of Contents September 2006; On Testing the Connection between Economic Freedom and Growth by Robert A. Lawson; How to Handle Economic Freedom: Reply to Lawson by Jakob De Haan…; Assume the Positional: Comment on Robert Frank by Andrew Kashdan…; Taking Libertarian Concerns Seriously: Reply to Kashdan and Klein by Robert H. Frank; Work Incentives and Employment are the Wrong Explanation of Sweden’s Success by Andreas Bergh; Second Reply to Bergh by Peter H. Lindert; A Little More Liberty: What the JEL Omits in Its Account of What the Economic Report of the President Omits by Daniel B. Klein…; Benjamin Franklin and Colonial Money: A Reply to Michener and Wright—Yet Again by Farley Grubb; Knut Wicksell, Gustav Cassel, Eli Heckscher, Bertil Ohlin and Gunnar Myrdal on the Role of the Economist in Public Debate by Benny Carlson…; Do Economists Reach a Conclusion On Rail Transit? by Ted Balaker…; Correspondence September 2006 by Meir Kohn
May 2006: Table of Contents May 2006; Is the Swedish Welfare State A Free Lunch? by Andreas Bergh; The Welfare State Is the Wrong Target: A Reply to Bergh by Peter H. Lindert; Farley Grubb’s Noisy Evasions on Colonial Money: A Rejoinder by Ronald W. Michener…; The Costs of Critical Commentary in Economics Journals by Robert Whaples; Why Has Critical Commentary Been Curtailed at Top Economics Journals? A Reply to Robert Whaples by Philip R. P. Coelho…; Do Economists Reach A Conclusion on Road Pricing? The Intellectual History of an Idea by Robin Lindsey; A List of the 364 Economists Who Objected to Thatcher’s Macro Policy by Philip Booth; Reply to Hortlund’s “Defense of the Real Bills Doctrine” by Richard H. Timberlake
January 2006: Table of Contents January 2006; Foreword: Editor’s Report January 2006; Miscounting Money of Colonial America by Ronald W. Michener…; Theory, Evidence, and Belief— The Colonial Money Puzzle Revisited: Reply to Michener and Wright by Farley Grubb; In Defense of the Real Bills Doctrine by Per Hortlund; Damned If You Do: Comment on Schuler’s Argentina Analysis by David Altig; Argentina’s problems went far beyond the absence of a strict currency board: Comment on Schuler by Brad Setser; Reply to David Altig and Brad Setser by Kurt Schuler; Do Economists Reach a Conclusion on Taxi Deregulation? by Adrian T. Moore…; Textbook Entrepreneurship: Comment on Johansson by William J. Baumol; 364 Economists on Economic Policy by Geoffrey Wood; AEA Ideology: Campaign Contributions of American Economic Association Members, Committee Members, Officers, Editors, Referees, Authors, and Acknowledgees by William A. McEachern; Sense and Sensibilities: Myrdal’s Plea for Self-Disclosure and Some Disclosures on AEA Members by Daniel B. Klein; Correspondence January 2006
August 2005: Table of Contents August 2005; Rejoinder to Wittman: True Myths by Bryan Caplan; Second Reply to Caplan: The Power and the Glory of the Median Voter by Donald Wittman; Gold Standards and the Real Bills Doctrine in U.S. Monetary Policy by Richard H. Timberlake; Ignorance and Influence: U.S. Economists on Argentina’s Depression of 1998-2002 by Kurt Schuler; Do Economists Reach a Conclusion on Free-Banking Episodes? by Ignacio Briones…; The Federal Reserve System’s Influence on Research in Monetary Economics by Lawrence H. White; Decline in Critical Commentary, 1963-2004 by Philip R. P. Coelho…; The Role of Economists in Ending the Draft by David R. Henderson; Correspondence August 2005
April 2005: Table of Contents April 2005; From Friedman to Wittman: The Transformation of Chicago Political Economy by Bryan Caplan; Reply to Caplan: On the Methodology of Testing for Voter Irrationality by Donald Wittman; Rejoinder to Pesendorfer by Philip R. P. Coelho…; Second Reply to Coelho, Klein, and McClure by Wolfgang Pesendorfer; Information-Knowledge Symposium: Introduction by Daniel B. Klein; Making Connections by Brian J. Loasby; Information, Knowledge, Understanding and Wisdom by Thomas Mayer; Information, the Tip of the Tacit Iceberg by Bruce Caldwell; Information-Knowledge and Action-Knowledge by Israel M. Kirzner; Why Distinguish Between Information and Knowledge? by Leland B. Yeager; Musings on Information and Knowledge by Robert J. Aumann; Why the Distinction Between Knowledge and Belief Might Matter by Ken Binmore; Symposium on Information and Knowledge: Arrow Correspondence by Kenneth Arrow; Geo-Rent: A Plea to Public Economists by Fred E. Foldvary; The Ph.D. Circle in Academic Economics by Daniel B. Klein; The Mathematical Romance: An Engineer’s View of Mathematical Economics by Warren C. Gibson; Salute to Schelling: Keeping It Human by Daniel B. Klein…
December 2004: Table of Contents December 2004; Adam Smith’s Invisible Hands by Peter Minowitz; “Credibility” in Context: Do Central Bankers and Economists Interpret the Term Differently? by James Forder; Identity and Politics in School Reform Research by Fabio Rojas; Fashion Cycles in Economics by Philip R. P. Coelho…; Response to “Fashion Cycles in Economics” by Wolfgang Pesendorfer; Rate of Economic Growth, Level of Development, and Income Inequality: Rejoinder to the Reply by Edwards and McGuirk by Jih Y. Chang…; Scholasticism versus Pietism: The Battle for the Soul of Economics by Robert H. Nelson; The National Research Council Ranking of Research Universities: Its Impact on Research in Economics by Randall G. Holcombe; Economics without Entrepreneurship or Institutions: A Vocabulary Analysis of Graduate Textbooks by Dan Johansson; Correspondence December 2004
August 2004: Table of Contents August 2004; Does Economic Performance Correlate with Big Government? by Peter Gordon…; Kuznets Curveball: Missing the Regional Strike Zone by Jeffrey Edwards…; Reply to Chang and Ram: Statistical Adequacy and the Reliability of Inference by Jeffrey Edwards…; Statist Quo Bias by Daniel B. Klein; Response to Klein by Cass R. Sunstein; Reply to Sunstein by Daniel B. Klein; Rejoinder to De Alessi by Michael Kremer; Licensing Doctors: Do Economists Agree? by Shirley Svorny; The Development Set: The Character of the Journal of Development Economics 2002 by Susan Anderson…; Institutional Ties of Journal of Development Economics Authors and Editors by Daniel B. Klein…; Size Matters: The Standard Error of Regressions in the American Economic Review by Stephen T. Ziliak…; Preference Falsification in the Economics Profession by William L. Davis; Response to Edwards and McGuirk: Income Level, Economic Growth, and Inequality: Flawed Methodology and Inaccurate Inference by Jih Y. Chang…; Learning to Lose a Leg: Casualties of PhD Economics Training in Stockholm by Anne D. Boschini…; Correspondence August 2004
April 2004: Table of Contents April 2004; Overlooking the Obvious in Africa by Jane S. Shaw; How to Get Real About Organs by Alexander Tabarrok; Response to Tabarrok by Margaret M. Byrne…; Reply to Byrne and Thompson by Alexander Tabarrok; Stock Market Efficiency Withstands Another Challenge: Solving the “Sell in May/Buy after Halloween” Puzzle by Edwin D. Maberly…; An Ivory-Tower Take on the Ivory Trade by Michael De Alessi; Response to De Alessi by Michael Kremer; Reply to Kremer by Michael De Alessi; Postal Reform by Rick Geddes; Prohibition vs. Legalization: Do Economists Reach a Conclusion on Drug Policy? by Mark Thornton; Agricultural Economists and the State by E. C. Pasour, Jr; The Social Science Citation Index: A Black Box—with an Ideological Bias? by Daniel B. Klein…; Citation Counts and SSCI in Personnel Decisions: A Survey of Economics Departments by Daniel B. Klein…; In Sweden, Anti-Globalizationists Dominate Public Discourse, Econ Profs Do Little by Per Skedinger…; Ken Kam and Market Efficiency by Daniel B. Klein