Seen, the Unseen, and the Unrealized

Per L. Bylund is assistant professor of entrepreneurship and Records-Johnston Professor of Free Enterprise in the School of Entrepreneurship at Oklahoma State University.

• Chapter 1 The How of the MarketChapter 2 The Price is RightChapter 3 What Prices CommunicateChapter 4 Unbeatable, Imperfect MarketsChapter 5 The Seen and the UnseenChapter 6 The Market and Natural DisastersChapter 7 Taxation and RegulationChapter 8 Attempts to Perfect the MarketChapter 9 The UnrealizedChapter 10 Implications for our View of Society

Bylund (Oklahoma State) shows how markets help society improve choices about alternative future opportunities. Government regulations, in contrast, often make these choices less efficient for society as a whole. Bylund uses a thought experiment about the rational economic choices people in a small, simple, local society make. In a free market, apple growers and nail manufacturers depend on prices to signal the relative value of goods and services. These signals, in turn, guide entrepreneurs toward investments that make new, valuable things available. As economic production diversifies, prices coordinate entrepreneurs’ activities. When governments regulate and subsidize specific economic activities, they change entrepreneurs’ calculations about future investment, narrowing the possibilities for efficiently made and innovative products. Efforts to regulate or ban sweatshops, for example, hurt the unrealized potential of markets for increasing value in society. Markets allow for a more efficient and competent response to natural disasters than governments... [T]his clear, readable book will stimulate discussion in economics, business, philosophy, and economic policy classes. Summing Up:Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.