A Free-Market Energy Blog

(Short) Response to Dolan on Hayek and a Carbon Tax

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 19, 2017

Editor note: This responds to Professor Dolan’s post yesterday, “Hayek and a Carbon Tax: Response to Bradley, which answered Bradley’s post two days ago, “Hayek was not a Malthusian or Global Tariff Advocate (link to a carbon tax peculiar, errant).” The debate began with Dolan’s original piece, “Friedrich Hayek on Carbon Taxes.”

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“… let’s add the ‘fat tail’ of the global CO2 blanket protecting against a little ice age or an ice age in the next several hundred years. Why not think of global lukewarming as a short-term positive, and the CO2 blanket as a long-term positive?”

“Classical liberals should be focused on adaptation to climate change, natural or anthropogenic, which is wealth-as-health and free movements of goods and services and people.

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Hayek and a Carbon Tax: Response to Bradley

By Ed Dolan -- May 18, 2017

Editor note: Professor Dolan kindly submitted this rebuttal to Robert Bradley’s post yesterday, “Hayek was not a Malthusian or Global Tariff Advocate (link to a carbon tax peculiar, errant).” Bradley’s post, in turn, was a critique of Dolan’s original piece, “Friedrich Hayek on Carbon Taxes.”

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I am happy to comment on the validity of the nine points you raise regarding Hayek and a carbon tax.

  1. Hayek was suspicious of scientific ‘consensus,’ given the consensus of Keynesianism and central planning in his lifetime.

I agree with what you say about Hayek’s attitude toward the Keynesian consensus. However, my reading is that he distinguished between social sciences and natural sciences, and between the ability of people to offer informed judgement on fields in which they have specific expert training compared with fields in which they do not have such training.

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Hayek was not a Malthusian or Global Tariff Advocate (link to a carbon tax peculiar, errant)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 17, 2017

“Professor Dolan is invited to study the Hayek literature to see if any of the above nine points are not valid. The burden of proof is on him to try to square a classical liberal with disputed externality pricing, ‘tax-bads’ public finance, international tariffs, equity tax-dividend adjustments, and government planning.”

Yale economics PhD Ed Dolan recently attempted to link the classical liberal scholar F. A. Hayek (1899–1992) to a carbon tax in a piece published by the (misnamed) Niskanen Center. [1]

Friedrich Hayek on Carbon Taxes” is more than unconvincing. It is shoddy. It fails to make its point and (purposefully?) neglects the obvious themes of Hayekian economics and political economy for a generic issue such as climate change.

Professor Dolan begins by admitting that Hayek never wrote anything on the subject.…

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Home Car Charging: A Primer

By Donn Dears -- May 16, 2017
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Intellectual Vertigo: Trivia, Emotionalism in One Spot Check (taxpayers pay for this?)

By -- May 15, 2017
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Call to Action: Let’s Fix EPA (comments due soon)

By -- May 12, 2017
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NPR Bungles Sea Level Rise Story (supposed threats to coastal military installations ignore science)

By Robert Endlich -- May 11, 2017
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Abolish Private Property in Water? California Needs Markets! (Stroshane reconsidered)

By -- May 10, 2017
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“Fraud, Fake” … James Hansen on Paris (Trump should take note)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 9, 2017
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‘Outside the Green Box’ (new primer unmasks ‘sustainable development’ fallacies)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 8, 2017
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