Trade policy has recently been in the news, with the focus on the costs to firms from higher prices due to trade tariffs. However, the focus on the effect of tariffs on prices misses perhaps the most important benefit from international trade: the transmission of ideas.

In the early days of Microsoft, Bill Gates and Paul Allen did not need investors’...

Panel 1a is taken from Andrews et al. (2016), Panel 1b from Decker et al....

Competition, whether in sports or in the arts or in business, can spur players to perform better than they otherwise would. Take two runners, for example; if there is a large gap between the two, then the one falling behind is likely to slow down since there is no hope for winning, while the one in the lead may also relax as victory is ensured. In both cases, neither is performing as well as she could.

For numerous cities in Mexico, either a share of the fare (depicted in light yellow)...

In the state of Mexico, the more education a person has, the less likely they...