Emporiophobia (Fear of Markets): Cooperation or Competition?

Emporiophobia (Fear of Markets): Cooperation or Competition?

Presidential Address, Southern Economic Association, Tampa, FL

Economists have committed a fundamental semantic error by focusing on the term competition and ignoring the cooperative nature of markets. By correctly emphasizing cooperation, economists could help combat the “emporiophobia,” or the fear of markets that is prevalent in the general public and current political discourse.

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Paul Rubin is senior fellow at the Technology Policy Institute. Dr. Rubin has written or edited seven books, and published over one hundred articles and chapters on economics, law, and regulation in journals including the American Economic Review, the Journal of Political Economy, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Journal of Legal Studies, the Journal of Law and Economics, and the Yale Journal on Regulation. He has contributed to the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and other newspapers and magazines.

Dr. Rubin is also Dobbs Professor of Economics and Law at Emory University in Atlanta and editor in chief of Managerial and Decision Economics. He previously served as senior staff economist at President Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers, chief economist at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, director of advertising economics at the Federal Trade Commission, and vice-president of Glassman-Oliver Economic Consultants, Inc., a litigation consulting firm in Washington. He has taught economics at the University of Georgia, City University of New York, VPI, and George Washington University Law School. Dr. Rubin is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati and holds a PhD from Purdue University.

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