Publications

The Free Market Fallacy

This paper describes how the declining competitiveness of our markets explains much of the stark divergence in fortunes we’ve seen over the last decades. We’ll see how the widespread notion that “free, unregulated markets are good for society” applies only in narrow circumstances, and how pro-competition regulations can correct social phenomena such as working poverty while simultaneously encouraging economic growth.

If you are unable to access the full article with the link above, here is the Original Manuscript: The Free Market Fallacy.

A two-page summary can be found here.

Working Poverty: Low Skills or Low Wages?

This paper, published in Challenge: The Magazine of Economic Affairs, examines root causes of working poverty through an economic lens.    Looking beyond the common assumption that sub-poverty wages are due to inadequate skills or education — and establishing a test for that assumption — Lyon finds that the best data available instead points to the market power of the employers in the largest low-wage labor markets.

If you are unable to access the full article with the link above, here is the Original Manuscript:  Working Poverty: Low Skills or Low Wages?

A two-page summary of the article can be found here.

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Growth Is Not Always the Answer

This paper examines the drivers behind rising housing prices in fast-growth cities. Using the author’s home city, Austin, Texas, as an example, the paper goes beyond supply-focused explanations (e.g. low-density zoning regulations) and suggests that rapid population growth — especially when the incomes of new arrivals are higher than median wages in the city — is a stronger influence on skyrocketing housing prices.