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Bryan Douglas Caplan

Labor Econ Versus the World: Essays on the World's Greatest Market Paperback – January 15, 2022

by Bryan Caplan (Author), Jack Pfefferkorn (Editor)

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Bryan Caplan, New York Times Bestselling author of Open Borders, The Myth of the Rational Voter, Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids, and The Case Against Education, has been blogging for EconLog since 2005. Labor Econ Versus the World collects the very best of his EconLog essays on the science and ethics of work.

Caplan gives readers a tantalizing bundle of puzzling questions. Why is illegal immigration so low? What's the harm of banning jerky employers? How lazy are professors, really?

He provides a long list of contrarian answers. Immigration is grossly underrated. Education is grossly overrated. "If you don't like it, quit" does far more for workers than government ever has.

At the same time, Caplan happily embraces unfashionable yet obvious truths. Government regulation kills jobs. Most professors have a poor grasp of the real world. And bourgeois common sense is correct: Work hard, plan ahead, and your odds of finding prosperity and joy in the First World are excellent.

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258 pages
Language

English
Publication date

January 15, 2022
Dimensions

5 x 0.59 x 8 inches
ISBN-13

979-8785872868
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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B09QF44HHG
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Independently published (January 15, 2022)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 258 pages
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-8785872868
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.59 x 8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #867,810 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #404 in Free Enterprise & Capitalism
- #3,388 in Human Resources (Books)

Customer Reviews:
46 ratings

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About the author

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Bryan Douglas Caplan

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I'm Bryan Caplan, Professor of Economics at George Mason University and New York Times bestselling author. I’ve written *The Myth of the Rational Voter*, named "the best political book of the year" by the New York Times, *Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids*, *The Case Against Education*, and *Open Borders: The Science and Ethics of Immigration* – co-authored with Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal’s Zach Weinersmith. My latest project, *Poverty: Who To Blame*, is now well underway.

I blog for EconLog. I've published in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, TIME, Newsweek, Atlantic, American Economic Review, Economic Journal, Journal of Law and Economics, and Intelligence, and appeared on ABC, BBC, Fox News, MSNBC, and C-SPAN.

An openly nerdy man who loves role-playing games and graphic novels, I live in Oakton, Virginia, with my wife and four kids.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5

46 global ratings

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3 star		8%
2 star		3%
1 star		6%

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Paul Sander

A very worthwhile read

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 5, 2023

Verified Purchase

Very interesting, insightful, easy to read presentation of some important economics.

Helpful

David

An extremely compelling and bingeable critique of conventional wisdom

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 4, 2022

Verified Purchase

Bryan Caplan brilliantly critiques many pieces of conventional wisdom on labor markets, like the idea that anti-discrimination and minimum wage regulations increases workers' salaries, or that education boosts worker productivity, or that welfare helps workers and immigration hurts them.

And he explains his insights through bingeable easy-to-read essays which make the underlying economic principles so obvious that you wonder why no one has explained it quite this way before.

I highly recommend this book for anyone looking for interesting takes on some of the most important topics in economics, like labor regulations, welfare, immigration, and education.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Martin Jaramillo

Great book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 24, 2022

Great book

Repetitive and not very thorough

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 2, 2022

Verified Purchase

I thought this would be a fun pop-econ book like Freakonomics or The Armchair Economist... but it's just regurgitated blog posts from marginalrevolution. Each section contains a few articles on a central theme... but they are each pretty repetitive. And definitely more "hot take" than rigorous analysis. Pretty disappointed / I should have just spent more time clicking through the blog.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Econ Professor

Great content organization

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 26, 2022

Much if this is taken from Bryan’s blog posts. But these are edited and organized in book form, and it’s worth the few bucks. Caplin is always thoughtful and provocative. His leads and how he presents them can’t be ignored.

Helpful

William E. Fleischmann

Sound economics and reason

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 10, 2022

Caplan has always been an easily approachable writer with a firm grasp of economic realities that modern universities often choose to pretend don't exist. Perhaps the most insidious economic idea in place today (with the possible exception of MMT) is Caplan's Societal Tenet 1:

The main reason today's workers have a decent standard of living is that government [or unions or worker agitation] passed [or demanded] a bunch of ;laws protecting them.

Nothing could be farther from the truth! In fact, in the 19th century in the US, in the complete absence of labor laws and before the rise of union power(after 1880), real wages QUADRUPLED, working conditions improved dramatically, the average work week was slashed by a third, starvation was effectively eliminated and child labor, which had approached 100% (agrarian society), plummeted to fewer than 1-in-3 boys and 1-ib-8 girls and continued to fall (the remainder overwhelmingly still employed on family farms). As these things all took place in the absence of government or union activity, it is objectively impossible for the to be the cause ... and yet some still cling to the mythology with both hands.

Helpful

Ross Levatter

Caplan Is ALWAYS A Captivating Read

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 24, 2022

Although I haven't purchased this book yet, I glanced through the contents page online here and note I've already read (in blog form) most of the book. If you haven't, you're in for a treat. Caplan is both a brilliant and courageous thinker, living in a time when mentioning obvious truths is often an act of courage. He makes you think while entertaining you, a task not achievable for too many academics. Anyone who reads this book will walk away more knowledgeable and with a smile on their face.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Amazon Customer

As eye-opening as all of Caplans work!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 25, 2022

I'm honestly surprised at how many new things I've learned. Every article is fun to read and insightful.

You should read this!

2 people found this helpful

Helpful