Wayne A. Leighton

Our guest today was Wayne A. Leighton, and he came to talk about his new book Madmen, Intellectuals and Academic Scribblers: The Economic Engine of Political Change.

His books main question is: where does political change come from? By political change  we mean political outcome, change within a society or the rules that certain groups have. His book is mostly about how changing rules (or institutions as he names this) affect human behavior. Rules create incentives and by changing incentives you can change behavior.
The three main question of his book are the following: 1) why do democracies generate inefficient  and unjust policies? 2) why do failed policies persist, even when better alternatives exist? 3) why do failed policies sometimes get replaced with better ideas?
The framework of the book is: ideas determine institutions, institutions shape incentives and incentives matter.
the main characters of his book are 3: the Madmen, Intellectuals, Academic Scribblers.

Things happen when ideas and circumstances meet.

I really enjoyed this dialogue,  now I want to buy the book and read it.