Incentive Economics

Focusing on incentives rather than distribution solves knotty economic policy problems, offering a radical improvement of our economic life and a way out of left-right debates. However many issues require a Marie Kondo-style cleanup of our legal and regulatory systems, which have grown up in a sequence of patches for unintended consequences. Implementing incentive-based reforms in a democracy requires spreading the ideas of freedom, not trying to get a politician’s ear. We should not tailor advice to amateur ideas of what is politically popular or feasible, and instead speak simple truths clearly and patiently.