Karl Muth

Karl Muth is a commentator, economist, and legal academic.

His academic interests include the economics of governance, the portability of risk attitudes across domains, risk measurement and mitigation, and other topics. His thoughts on these issues have appeared in a wide range of publications, from The Journal of Private Equity to the Oprah Winfrey Show to the second edition of the academic text Controversies in Globalization.

Karl studied law in the Netherlands and in the United States and holds J.D. and M.B.A. degrees, the latter with a concentration in Economics from The University of Chicago. He earned his M.Phil./Ph.D. from the London School of Economics; his dissertation was entitled “Three Frameworks for Commodity-Producer Decision-Making Under Uncertainty.” Prior to his doctoral work, Karl was an Executive-in-Residence at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business and he is currently a Lecturer in Economics, Law, Organizational Behavior, Public Policy, and Statistics at Northwestern University. He divides his time between the United States and Europe.

Post Archive

27 March 2014
Karl Muth asks what we can learn from the seemingly infinite popularity of the dystopian militarised city-state: Is its popularity evidence of popular concern for civil liberties…
20 March 2014
Karl Muth reveals another side to the creator of the Gini coefficient. Corrado Gini was a statistician who came up with something many are familiar with today, his eponymous…
17 March 2014
We hear the argument over and over again: We need these rules not for law-abiding citizens (and non-citizens) but for people who will acquire and then misuse these items. It is a…
07 March 2014
Karl Muth argues that the ‘resource curse’ rests on some questionable assumptions. There is a popular narrative told each year in economics, public policy,…
21 February 2014
Why Gibraltar’s plan to sell citizenships and passports to non-Europeans should be viewed as innovative, important, proven, and clever. There is a debate in the EU about…
14 February 2014
Karl Muth looks for and finds innovation in postal services. The story of postal services is a difficult one to tell fully, as it’s complex. I didn’t become that interested in the…
05 February 2014
Karl Muth calls for honest about the persistent and intergenerational nature of wealth. We have an annoying, disingenuous habit in Western society to divide the individual as a…
29 January 2014
Karl Muth explores the history of the minimum wage and offers an argument in support of its repeal. People are always looking for so-called coalition issues. Whether you’re…
24 January 2014
Karl Muth critiques the international environmentalist agenda and points to the ways it reinforces racism and inter-regional inequality. The Chinese and Brazilians should cut…
21 January 2014
Here, I examine two cases of industries regulating themselves. In one case, to their benefit (and the detriment of consumers) in a cartel system. In the other case, to the alleged…
09 January 2014
Karl Muth explores the relationships between the media, health, behaviour and policy. This coming term at Northwestern University, I’m teaching a masters-level policy course…
30 December 2013
It fascinates me to examine the conservative (note the uncapitalised “c”) parties of developed Western countries. When I arrive in a country where I’m unfamiliar with the…
20 December 2013
Karl Muth argues that water will be the defining issue for climate change watchers and politicians in the near future. Water has a linguistic history to match its biological…
13 December 2013
Greg Gopman isn’t particularly wealthy. Or famous. Or influential. Or powerful. He’s another white guy who moved to San Francisco and who has an idea now and then.…
11 December 2013
Is everybody really like jet planes, islands, and tigers on a gold leash? Or are only some people? And should we care? I write this as the NASDAQ shattered four thousand points…