Cass R. Sunstein | The New York Review of Books

Accounting for the Human Cost

Applying a cost-benefit analysis to people’s problems may seem “bloodless,” but it can be a corrective to interest group lobbying, ideology, and bias.

The Tragic Science: How Economists Cause Harm (Even as They Aspire to Do Good)

by George F. DeMartino

November 24, 2022 issue

Who Should Regulate?

The question of whether federal agencies or the courts should have the right to interpret legislation may seem technical, but it significantly affects the power of the government.

The Chevron Doctrine: Its Rise and Fall, and the Future of the Administrative State

by Thomas W. Merrill

May 26, 2022 issue

What Price Is Right?

Both government regulators and private companies regularly assign a monetary value to human lives. A new book argues that the price is too low, and can entrench inequalities.

Ultimate Price: The Value We Place on Life

by Howard Steven Friedman

June 10, 2021 issue

Letter

Kenneth R. Feinberg

What’s it Worth?

September 23, 2021 issue

Once Upon a Time There Was a Big Bubble

Robert Shiller argues for the power of stories in shaping economics.

Narrative Economics: How Stories Go Viral and Drive Major Economic Events

by Robert J. Shiller

January 14, 2021 issue

The Siren of Selfishness

Mean Girl: Ayn Rand and the Culture of Greed

by Lisa Duggan

April 9, 2020 issue

Wading Through the Sludge

According to the Office of Management and Budget, in 2015, Americans spent 9.78 billion hours on federal paperwork.

Administrative Burden: Policymaking by Other Means

by Pamela Herd and Donald P. Moynihan

April 4, 2019 issue

Sure It Can

August 16, 2018 issue

It Can Happen Here

How habituation, confusion, distraction, self-interest, fear, rationalization, and a sense of personal powerlessness make terrible things possible

They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933–45

by Milton Mayer, with a new afterword by Richard J. Evans

Broken Lives: How Ordinary Germans Experienced the Twentieth Century

by Konrad H. Jarausch

June 28, 2018 issue

Letter

Herb Strentz

Sure It Can

August 16, 2018 issue

Listen, Economists!

The Future of Law and Economics: Essays in Reform and Recollection

by Guido Calabresi

November 10, 2016 issue

The Offshore Trillions

March 10, 2016 issue

Parking the Big Money

Gabriel Zucman’s ‘The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens’

The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens

by Gabriel Zucman, translated from the French by Teresa Lavender Fagan, with a foreword by Thomas Piketty

The Price We Pay

a film directed by Harold Crooks, inspired by Brigitte Alepin’s 2010 book La Crise fiscale qui vient (The Coming Fiscal Crisis)

January 14, 2016 issue

Letter

John Christensen

The Offshore Trillions

March 10, 2016 issue

She Was Houdini’s Greatest Challenge

The Witch of Lime Street: Séance, Seduction, and Houdini in the Spirit World

by David Jaher

December 17, 2015 issue

Why Free Markets Make Fools of Us

Akerlof and Shiller’s ‘Phishing for Phools: The Economics of Manipulation and Deception’

Phishing for Phools: The Economics of Manipulation and Deception

by George A. Akerlof and Robert J. Shiller

October 22, 2015 issue

John & Harriet: Still Mysterious

Mill’s distinctive form of liberalism had a great deal to do with his relationship with Harriet Taylor

Hayek on Mill: The Mill–Taylor Friendship and Other Writings

by Friedrich Hayek, edited by Sandra J. Peart

April 2, 2015 issue

Who Knows If You’re Happy?

Happiness by Design: Change What You Do, Not How You Think

by Paul Dolan, with a foreword by Daniel Kahneman

Subjective Well-Being: Measuring Happiness, Suffering, and Other Dimensions of Experience

a report by the National Research Council, edited by Arthur A. Stone and Christopher Mackie

December 4, 2014 issue

Nudges: Good and Bad

On freedom of choice, autonomy, and dignity

October 23, 2014 issue

‘Devastation to Our Liberties’?

August 14, 2014 issue

The Refounding Father

John Paul Stevens’s plan to change the Constitution

Six Amendments: How and Why We Should Change the Constitution

by John Paul Stevens

June 5, 2014 issue

Letter

Jon O. Newman

The Greater Threat to Our Democracy

October 9, 2014 issue

Letter

Burton Caine

‘Devastation to Our Liberties’?

August 14, 2014 issue

Stop That Tram!

May 22, 2014 issue

How Do We Know What’s Moral?

Would You Kill the Fat Man? The Trolley Problem and What Your Answer Tells Us About Right and Wrong

by David Edmonds

April 24, 2014 issue

Letter

Judith Jarvis Thomson

Stop That Tram!

May 22, 2014 issue