Categorizing Ideological Varieties of Capitalism
January 2009
 
In this paper, I will argue that states’ international monetary policies represent their underlying political philosophies and that discord between their philosophies breeds conflict between their economic policies.  The paper will begin by investigating the political foundations of the Bretton Woods financial order, and then will explain how states that embodied a divergent philosophy undermined that postwar regime.

Coordinated Wage Bargaining, Inflation, and Unemployment

December 2008

In this paper, I will argue that Peter Hall and Robert Franzese’s portrayal of coordinated wage bargaining overemphasizes that institution’s importance to political economy and, instead, can be subsumed under a politics-based approach to studying economics.  The paper begins by examining the time-inconsistency problem of monetary policy and explaining how Hall and Franzese elaborate upon it.  It then critiques their economic model of a collective action problem among wage negotiators, and next reveals an empirical weakness of their claim that coordinated wage bargaining facilitates collective action.  Finally, the paper proposes that wage negotiations, like central bank independence, may be explained better by Adam Posen’s politics-based approach.

The Influence of Political Philosophy on Postwar Monetary Policy

November 2008

In this paper, I will argue that states’ international monetary policies represent their underlying political philosophies and that discord between their philosophies breeds conflict between their economic policies.  The paper will begin by investigating the political foundations of the Bretton Woods financial order, and then will explain how states that embodied a divergent philosophy undermined that postwar regime.

Understanding the Israeli Education System

March 2007

...[E]ven in the classroom, teachers foster a state of anarchy to promote the survival of the fittest.  When I was in sixth grade, an in-class fight resulted in one student hurling a pocket knife across the room, stabbing another student between the eyes.  He was never disciplined.  On a lighter note, I was once duct-taped into my chair by a fellow student in ninth grade, again during class, when a student debate over the Aristotelian "good life" turned acrimonious...