The Half-Life of Policy Rationales

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

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.

part i Metering, Excluding, and Charging1 Technology, Marine Conservation, and Fisheries Management2 The Lighthouse as a Private-Sector Collective Good3 Motorway Financing and Provision: Technology Favors a New Approach4 Buying Time at the Curb5 Fencing the Airshed: Using Remote Sensing to Police Auto Emissionspart ii Quality Assurance and Consumer Protection6 Technology and the Case for Free Banking7 Consumer Protection Regulation and Information on the Internet8 Medical Licensing: Existing Public Policy and Technological Changepart iii Natural Monopoly?9 Technology and Electricity: Overcoming the Umbilical Mentality10 Avoiding the Grid: Technology and the Decentralization of Water11 Technological Change and the Case for Government Intervention in Postal Servicespart iv Other Areas of Policy12 The Entrepreneurial Community in Light of Advancing Business Practices and Technologies13 Technology and the Protection of Endangered Species