Bryan Caplan

Bryan Caplan is Associate Professor of Economics at George Mason University and author of The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies as well as many journal articles and book chapters. He and Arnold Kling edit the weblog EconLog.

Last week I asked him what he was reading. His reply:

In social science, I've just finished Kathleen Jamieson's Everything You Think You Know About Politics... And Why You're Wrong, John Lott's Freedomnomics, Robert Frank's The Economic Naturalist, and an advance copy of Tyler Cowen's Discover Your Inner Economist.

I'm reading several books in educational psychology on "Transfer of Learning," but to be honest their titles are almost inter-changeable.

And since I dream of branching out from economics to graphic novels (see my Amore Infernale on my webpage), I freely admit that I just finished Writers on Comics Scriptwriting by Mark Salisbury - and just RE-read Brian Vaughan's Y: The Last Man (volume 9) and Bill Willingham's Fables (volume 2). With some luck, I'll get their autographs at Comic-Con - anyone else going?

From the Princeton University Press website:

The Myth of the Rational Voter takes an unflinching look at how people who vote under the influence of false beliefs ultimately end up with government that delivers lousy results. With the upcoming presidential election season drawing nearer, this thought-provoking book is sure to spark a long-overdue reappraisal of our elective system.

"Caplan offers readers a delightful mixture of economics, political science, psychology, philosophy, and history to resolve a puzzle that, at one time or another, has intrigued every student of public policy."
--N. Gregory Mankiw, Harvard University, former chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers

--Marshal Zeringue