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Zero-sum thinking and economic policy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 August 2018

Paul H. Rubin
Paul H. Rubin*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322. paul.rubin@gmail.comhttp://economics.emory.edu/home/people/faculty/rubin-paul.html
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Abstract

A main tenet of folk economics is the assumption that the world is zero-sum. Many implications stem from this assumption. These include: beliefs regarding taxation; beliefs regarding economic regulation; beliefs regarding inequality; and the core of Marxist economics. Zero-sum folk economic thinking is short-term and deals with distribution; standard economic thinking deals with the size of the pie and is longer-term.

Information

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 41 , 2018 , e185
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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References

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