Economics: Microeconomics 
Essential
The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics (CEE)
This encyclopedia contains articles by leading economists on basic concepts, economic systems, schools of economic thought, macroeconomics, economic policy, taxes, money and banking, economic regulation, environmental regulation, discrimination, labor issues, international economics, corporations, financial markets, the marketplace, the economics of special markets, economies outside the U.S., and biographies of famous economists.
Selected Essays on Political Economy
By Frédéric Bastiat: "Bastiat directed his arguments against certain ever recurring fallacies as they were employed in his time. Few people would employ them today quite as naively as it was still possible to do then. But let the reader not deceive himself that these same fallacies no longer play an important role in contemporary economic discussion: they are today expressed merely in a more sophisticated form and are therefore more difficult to detect."- F.A. Hayek
Economic Sophisms
By Frédéric Bastiat: "Bastiat was not primarily an original economic theorist. What he was, beyond all other men, was an economic pamphleteer, the greatest exposer of economic fallacies, the most powerful champion of free trade on the European Continent."- Henry Hazlitt
Strangulation by Regulation
By Peter Van Doren: "Why are America's markets so heavily regulated? Regulation usually rides in the Trojan horse of "market failure"-the perception that a particular market does not (or will not) operate efficiently without government intervention. Yet regulation persists in spite of evidence that it does not enhance efficiency. Why?"
Opening the Door to the Economic Way of Thinking
By Russell Roberts: "Here are ten fundamental ideas to help you explore and understand the world around us using the economic way of thinking. "
Economics in One Lesson
By Henry Hazlitt: "This primer on economic principles brilliantly analyzes the seen and unseen consequences of political and economic actions. In the words of F.A. Hayek, there is "no other modern book from which the intelligent layman can learn so much about the basic truths of economics in so short a time."
Twenty Myths About Markets
Tom Palmer subjects popular fallacies about the market system to the critical scrutiny of economics and ethics.
Competition, Regulation, and the Market Process: An "Austrian" Perspective
By Israel M. Kirzner: "The point is that in questioning government regulation, the economist makes no claim for the ultimate moral benignity of market process, or of its results; the relevant issue is strictly the effectiveness with which the system serves the goals of its individual participants."
The Layman's Guide to Economics
Five easy lessons to master free market economics, without math or graphs.
Recommended
Bankruptcy Doesn't Equal Death
Don Boudreaux, chairman of the George Mason University department of economics, writes, "A government bailout of the Big Three keeps huge amounts of productive inputs in firms that can't use them efficiently. Forcing taxpayers to subsidize the continued employment of gargantuan quantities of raw materials, labor and capital goods in unproductive pursuits is a recipe for economic stagnation. The popular and politically convenient myth has matters backwards: The bigger the unprofitable firm, the more vital it is that it be allowed to fail."
Cato Out Loud: The Auto Bailout
In a new edition of Cato Out Loud, Daniel J. Ikenson explains why the federal government should not extend a financial bailout to the auto industry. Since November, Cato analysts have appeared on more than 50 radio and television programs discussing the bailout of "The Big Three."
Tax Havens: Myths vs. Facts
Politicians from high-tax nations routinely smear tax havens as part of their efforts to undermine tax competition. Using academic research and data from international organizations, this video shows that the most common attacks made against low-tax jurisdictions are empty demagoguery.
When Corporations Hate Markets
In this month's lead essay, philosopher and libertarian theorist Roderick Long draws a sharp contrast between corporatism and libertarianism properly understood. He argues that liberals, conservatives, and even libertarians have all been guilty to some degree of obscuring this difference, and that the quality of our political discourse has suffered accordingly.
Tax Havens Are Very Beneficial for Global Economy
"Statist politicians and international bureaucracies such as the OECD and UN routinely attack tax havens, claiming that they lead to “harmful tax competition.” "Yet at no point do critics bother to provide any evidence for this claim. This mini-documentary that I narrated for the Center for Freedom and Prosperity looks at the empirical data and scholarly research and reports that tax havens actually have a very positive impact on the global economy." - Dr. Dan Mitchell
Three Days After Klein's Response, Another Attack
By Johan Norberg: "In May I wrote a critical Cato paper on Naomi Klein's attack on economic liberalisation, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, which I claimed was hopelessly flawed on virtually every level. Now Naomi Klein has responded to some of my claims. This response is in itself an example of the methods Klein regularly uses in her works, what I have called disaster polemics."
How Markets Use Knowledge
By Russ Roberts: "Economists will often say that prices steer knowledge and resources. Prices are traffic cops that signal to buyers and sellers what is scarce and what is valuable. But what does this mean exactly? How do prices achieve this?"
Norberg on Open Trade
"Here's the eloquent, wise, and learned Johan Norberg -- speaking recently at the Cato Institute -- explaining some of the benefits of open markets." - Donald Boudreaux, Chairman of the Department of Economics at George Mason University
Economics Does Not Lie
By Guy Sorman: "If economics is finally a science, what, exactly, does it teach? With the help of Columbia University economist Pierre-André Chiappori, I have synthesized its findings into ten propositions. Almost all top economists—those who are recognized as such by their peers and who publish in the leading scientific journals—would endorse them (the exceptions are those like Joseph Stiglitz and Jeffrey Sachs, whose public pronouncements are more political than scientific)."
Mexicans and Machines: Why It's Time To Lay Off NAFTA
"Like technology, trade gives us more good stuff than bad—yet Americans are likely to cheer technology and fear trade. No doubt TV talkers and White House wannabes will keep stoking our fears of foreigners until voters and viewers stop buying it—or until robots snag their jobs, too."
The Biofuel Brew Ha-Ha
By Peter Suderman: Reason contributor Peter Suderman writes that the biofuels craze is boosting the price of beer, because farmers are shifting away from barley to biofuel crops made more lucrative by mandates and subsidies.
The Micromagic of Microcredit
By Karol Boudreaux and Tyler Cowen: "If a poor family is able to keep a child in school, send someone to a clinic, or build up more secure savings, its well-being improves, if only marginally. This is a big part of the reason why poor people are demanding greater access to microcredit loans. And microcredit, unlike many charitable services, is capable of paying for itself—which explains why the private sector is increasingly involved. The future of microcredit lies in the commercial sector, not in unsustainable aid programs."
Munger on Fair Trade and Free Trade
"Mike Munger, frequent guest and longtime Econlib contributor, speaks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about fair trade coffee and free trade agreements. Does the premium for fair trade coffee end up in the hands of the grower? What economic forces might stop that from happening?"
Robert Frank's Strange Case for Taxing "The Rich"
By David R. Henderson: "At one time, critics of economic freedom justified high taxes on high-income people on the grounds of ability to pay. They at least admitted that those taxes hurt those people. But the growing availability to even the poor of goods that were only recently thought of as luxury goods has weakened that argument. Now, Robert Frank argues for higher taxes on high-income people on the grounds that it is good for them."
Adam Smith - A Primer
"Despite his fame, there is still widespread ignorance about the breadth of Adam Smith’s contributions to economics, politics and philosophy. In Adam Smith – A Primer, Eamonn Butler provides an authoritative introduction to the life and work of this ‘founder of economics’. "
Discover Your Inner Economist: Use Incentives to Fall in Love, Survive Your Next Meeting, and Motivate Your Dentist
"The economist and blogger Tyler Cowen provides quirky and insightful advice for life based on his signature urbane style of economic reasoning."
Why We Trade
By Russell Roberts: "We’re used to shrugging off all sorts of rhetorical gobbledygook from our politicians. But when you hear U.S. presidential candidates start to mouth off about free trade, watch your wallet: A discredited 14th-century theory of economics is enjoying a dangerous renaissance in the 2008 campaign. "
Fat on the Farm Bill
By Dr. Sallie James: The Farm Bill is the ultimate example of concentrated benefits and diffused costs. Farm subsidies are hard to justify on their merits, and even harder to justify when they go to massive corporate farms.
In Defense of Scalpers
By David Harsanyi: "In the end, I’m not sure why it’s fair to allow monopolies to sell tickets and not individuals. Turning a profit on your investment doesn’t sound like a crime to me. It sounds like America."
So You Want to be a Masonomist
By Arnold Kling: "Years from now, perhaps people will be saying that something big got started recently at the George Mason University department of economics. Maybe if you become a Masonomist now, you will be getting in early on a trend that will soon catch on much more widely."
Robert Frank on Economics Education and the Economic Naturalist
"Frank argues that the traditional way of teaching economics via graphs and equations often fails to make any impression on students. In this conversation with host Russ Roberts, Frank outlines an alternative approach from his new book, where students find interesting questions and enigmas from everyday life. They then try to explain them using the economic way of thinking."
Community-Run Fisheries: Avoiding the "Tragedy of the Commons"
By Donald R. Leal: "Community-Run Fisheries: Avoiding the "Tragedy of the Commons" presents case after case of communities that have effectively protected their fishing territories and preserved fish for the future."
Unintended Consequences
By Rob Norton: "The law of unintended consequences, often cited but rarely defined, is that actions of people - especially of government - always have effects that are unanticipated or "unintended." Economists and other social scientists have heeded its power for centuries; for just as long, politicians and popular opinion have largely ignored it."