Political decisions often create winners and losers. This can’t always be avoided, but as research by economist Maya Eden shows, predictable and transparent criteria can help minimize unfairness.

Why do people keep using products they say they would prefer did not exist? Many young users, for instance, say they would rather live without platforms such as TikTok or Instagram. Yet they continue to use them every day. For Sunstein, this paradox illustrates what he calls a “product trap”, a class of goods that individuals consume if they exist, while collectively preferring a world in which they did not. In a new episode of Thought Supply, legal scholar and behavioral economist Cass Sunstein and development economist David Yanagizawa-Drott reflect on a question that has shaped much of Sunstein’s work: why individuals so often act against their own preferences.

There’s no easy way to achieve fair taxation. It takes a bundle of pragmatic measures to close loopholes, minimize false incentives, and tax work and capital evenly. Ultimately, however, taxes are the product of political negotiation, according to historian Matthieu Leimgruber and economist Florian Scheuer.