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Labor Econ Versus the World: Essays on the World's Greatest Market
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.
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.
258 pages, Paperback
Published January 15, 2022
16 people are currently reading
144 people want to read
About the author
Bryan Caplan
24 books376 followersBryan Caplan is a professor of economics at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. He received his B.S. in economics from University of California, Berkeley and his Ph.D. from Princeton University. His professional work has been devoted to the philosophies of libertarianism and free-market capitalism and anarchism. (He is the author of the Anarchist Theory FAQ.) He has published in American Economic Review, Public Choice, and the Journal of Law and Economics, among others. He is a blogger at the EconLog blog along with Arnold Kling, and occasionally has been a guest blogger at Marginal Revolution with two of his colleagues at George Mason, Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok. He is an adjunct scholar of the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C.
Currently, his primary research interest is public economics. He has criticized the assumptions of rational voters that form the basis of public choice theory, but generally agrees with their conclusions based on his own model of "rational irrationality." Caplan has long disputed the efficacy of popular voter models, in a series of exchanges with Donald Wittman published by the Econ Journal Watch. Caplan outlined several major objections to popular political science and the economics sub-discipline public choice. Caplan later expanded upon this theme in his book The Myth of the Rational Voter (Princeton University Press 2007), in which he responded to the arguments put forward by Wittman in his The Myth of Democratic Failure.
He maintains a website that includes a "Museum of Communism" section, that "provides historical, economic, and philosophical analysis of the political movement known as Communism", to draw attention to human rights violations of which, despite often exceeding those of Nazi Germany, there is little public knowledge. Caplan has also written an online graphic novel called Amore Infernale.
Currently, his primary research interest is public economics. He has criticized the assumptions of rational voters that form the basis of public choice theory, but generally agrees with their conclusions based on his own model of "rational irrationality." Caplan has long disputed the efficacy of popular voter models, in a series of exchanges with Donald Wittman published by the Econ Journal Watch. Caplan outlined several major objections to popular political science and the economics sub-discipline public choice. Caplan later expanded upon this theme in his book The Myth of the Rational Voter (Princeton University Press 2007), in which he responded to the arguments put forward by Wittman in his The Myth of Democratic Failure.
He maintains a website that includes a "Museum of Communism" section, that "provides historical, economic, and philosophical analysis of the political movement known as Communism", to draw attention to human rights violations of which, despite often exceeding those of Nazi Germany, there is little public knowledge. Caplan has also written an online graphic novel called Amore Infernale.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 26, 2025
Rating: [C+]
While I've really enjoyed Bryan Caplan's other essay collections this one just wasn't for me. The labor econ and minimum wage topics were the most interesting but only made up the first 30% and I found some of the more technical sections difficult to follow.
The next 40% is on immigration and education. If you've already read Bryan's other books on these topics then I'm not sure how much value there is here besides refreshing your memory.
I found the last two sections on success and the marriage premium a bit of a mixed bag with some interesting ideas but not enough to bump up the overall rating of the book.
While I've really enjoyed Bryan Caplan's other essay collections this one just wasn't for me. The labor econ and minimum wage topics were the most interesting but only made up the first 30% and I found some of the more technical sections difficult to follow.
The next 40% is on immigration and education. If you've already read Bryan's other books on these topics then I'm not sure how much value there is here besides refreshing your memory.
I found the last two sections on success and the marriage premium a bit of a mixed bag with some interesting ideas but not enough to bump up the overall rating of the book.
March 29, 2023
Mostly I got this because I was curious about the AI narration and because I didn't realize it was a compilation of blog posts I'd mostly already read. Since I did subscribe to the blog I found it not terrible to review them, but not that good either. The narration was, for an AI, pretty incredible. I delivered tone and emphasis that was mostly very good and reasonable. However, every few minutes or so, there'd be a sentence with a tone that was sarcastic or petulant or overwrought in a jarring way.
July 10, 2022
[Imported automatically from my blog. Some formatting there may not have translated here.]
Bryan Caplan is on my short list of Trusted Thinkers. My default attitude toward those folks: If I disagree with them, there's a very good chance I'm wrong. I've previously read his previous books Open Borders, The Case Against Education, and The Myth of the Rational Voter. All quite good and recommended. (He has another one, Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids, but it came out when that was no longer an option for me.)
This self-published book is probably not for everyone; it's a collection of (approximately) 59 "essays" on the topics in which he's most interested:
Labor Economics: he's not a fan of labor regulation, including especially the minimum wage; Open Borders: a supplement to the book cited above, fleshing out his desires to greatly liberalize national immigration policy: Education: why he thinks college is a waste of time and money for most; Family/Personal Economics: looking at why (for example) married men make more money than single men, but married women make less than single women.Most of these "essays" are recycled blog posts from Caplan's days at EconLog. (He now has his own substack.) So I've probably read most of them before.
But I didn't mind tossing a few shekels Bryan's way via Amazon. And it was a fun read, despite the repetition.
September 20, 2023
In terms of cost, labor should be treated like any other good or commodity in terms of supply and demand.
Worker protection laws have a nominal effect on workplace safety and standard of living compared to free market competition and the worker’s own ability to be productive.
Immigration is often the scapegoat for unemployment where in reality the welfare state, labor laws, and minimum wage are the true culprit.
These are just some of the ideas espoused by libertarian economist and professor Bryan Caplan in this collection of essays and blog posts. The topics discussed here not only include labor and immigration, but also education (why much of it is a boondoggle and nothing more than signaling) and why adults should consider having (more) kids. Many of these concepts are addressed in greater detail in Mr. Caplan’s books, including among others: The Case Against Education; Open Borders; and Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids. Some of the more contentious (and therefore far more interesting) essays bookend this collection.
The essay entitled The Anti-Jerk Law uses a hypothetical analogy to show why anti-discrimination laws are bad for both employees as well as society: Imagine a society that passes an “anti-jerk” rule in which bosses who are socially obtuse end up getting sued irrespective of intent, avoid hiring or interacting with certain employees, have to go through mandatory “anti-jerk” training, and refraining from forms of motivation (think athletic coaches) that would otherwise enhance productivity.
The essays entitled What is the Male Marriage Premium and What is the Female Marriage Penalty explore explanations for why marriage and children are positively and negatively correlated with the career success of men and women.
Worker protection laws have a nominal effect on workplace safety and standard of living compared to free market competition and the worker’s own ability to be productive.
Immigration is often the scapegoat for unemployment where in reality the welfare state, labor laws, and minimum wage are the true culprit.
These are just some of the ideas espoused by libertarian economist and professor Bryan Caplan in this collection of essays and blog posts. The topics discussed here not only include labor and immigration, but also education (why much of it is a boondoggle and nothing more than signaling) and why adults should consider having (more) kids. Many of these concepts are addressed in greater detail in Mr. Caplan’s books, including among others: The Case Against Education; Open Borders; and Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids. Some of the more contentious (and therefore far more interesting) essays bookend this collection.
The essay entitled The Anti-Jerk Law uses a hypothetical analogy to show why anti-discrimination laws are bad for both employees as well as society: Imagine a society that passes an “anti-jerk” rule in which bosses who are socially obtuse end up getting sued irrespective of intent, avoid hiring or interacting with certain employees, have to go through mandatory “anti-jerk” training, and refraining from forms of motivation (think athletic coaches) that would otherwise enhance productivity.
The essays entitled What is the Male Marriage Premium and What is the Female Marriage Penalty explore explanations for why marriage and children are positively and negatively correlated with the career success of men and women.
March 28, 2023
I listened to the AI narration version on Audible: it was hilariously bad at times (hallucinating strong new accents, mumbling, squealing); but mostly spookily good (with Audible compression there are 20-second snatches I'd struggle to distinguish from a human). I'd guess this new tech will be a boon for authors who can't afford human narration of their books; and a boon for consumers: I look forward to narrations of increasingly obscure books.
The book itself is a collection of Caplan's essays themed loosely around labor econ (immigration, minimum wage, education as signaling). They're mostly very clear and short and fairly persuasive. Note that Caplan has a book on the most important subject covered, which is international immigration.
In general I am a big fan of collecting together writing which is already free to read on the internet, and charging people to read the collection. By revealed preference this somehow makes me considerably more likely to read the writing, maybe because I like logging things in Goodreads. Someone should do this for Robin Hanson's best writing.
The book itself is a collection of Caplan's essays themed loosely around labor econ (immigration, minimum wage, education as signaling). They're mostly very clear and short and fairly persuasive. Note that Caplan has a book on the most important subject covered, which is international immigration.
In general I am a big fan of collecting together writing which is already free to read on the internet, and charging people to read the collection. By revealed preference this somehow makes me considerably more likely to read the writing, maybe because I like logging things in Goodreads. Someone should do this for Robin Hanson's best writing.
April 21, 2022
1. this book is a selection of Caplan's blogposts
2. his ideas are unusual, and this is a good introduction to Caplan
3. the format forces the writing to "high-engaging, low justifying" mode. I think Caplan's ideas are mostly good, but only at the margin. Without engaging further than the blogposts, I fear one can become too Caplan-ized, and not notice how some of his arguments can crumble
2. his ideas are unusual, and this is a good introduction to Caplan
3. the format forces the writing to "high-engaging, low justifying" mode. I think Caplan's ideas are mostly good, but only at the margin. Without engaging further than the blogposts, I fear one can become too Caplan-ized, and not notice how some of his arguments can crumble
March 28, 2023
It's got some thought provoking insights! One of the biggest reasons I picked it up was to see his thoughts on minimum wage and monopsony. Unfortunately there wasn't too much about it in there. The idea of comparing immigration and the effects on employment was interesting, but not as convincing as the amount of new, well-done research that shows monopsony powers.
December 6, 2023
I definitely like Bryan Caplan's books a lot better than his blog. But I do read his blog, and it's always felt a bit silly that I've read all the posts starting from date N and none from before. This series is a nice way to fix that without going back and reading all the archives, which would be a bit much.
March 7, 2022
I love Caplan and enjoyed reading it!
A tad too expensive though to buy considering it’s mostly blogposts he wrote over the years.
A tad too expensive though to buy considering it’s mostly blogposts he wrote over the years.
February 20, 2023
This book was really fun.
I find it really fun to argue for contrarian opinions, and reading Caplan gives me tons of ammunition (possibly fallacious but who cares).
I find it really fun to argue for contrarian opinions, and reading Caplan gives me tons of ammunition (possibly fallacious but who cares).
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews