Professor in the Departments of Economics, Sociology, and the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago
Position:
Con to the question "Should performance enhancing drugs (such as steroids) be accepted in sports?"
Reasoning:
"While the case for banning various types of drugs and other enhancers is strong, the ability to control doping is limited. For there is a continuing battle between bans and the discovery of new enhancers that have not been banned.[...]
The result is a fragile equilibrium between the banning of various substances, enforcement of bans, and the search for new substances and ways to evade bans on old substances. This is not a perfect outcome, but I believe it is on the whole better for competitive sports and for participants than a policy that allows all kinds of performance enhancers and stimulants."
"Doping in Sports," Becker-Posner blog, Aug. 27, 2006
Experts
Individuals with MDs, JDs, PhDs, or other relevant advanced degrees, heads of professional sports leagues, and US Congress members with significant involvement in, or related to, performance enhancing drugs and sports. [Note: Experts definition varies by site]
Involvement and Affiliations:
Rose-Marie and Jack R. Anderson Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, 1990-present
Professor, Departments of Economics, Sociology, and the Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago, 1983-present
Presidential Medal of Freedom, 2007
Medal of the Italian Presidency, 2004
Member, Advisory Committee to the Secretary of Defense, 2001-2004
Board of Directors, Manhattan Institute, 1997-2003
National Medal of Science, 2000
Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences, 1992
Member, Academic Advisory Board, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1987-1991
Columnist, Business Week, 1985-2004
Research Associate, Economics Research Center, National Opinion Research Center (N.O.R.C.), 1980
"The Case Against the Draft", Hoover Digest, Summer 2007
Cowritten with Casey Mulligan, "Deadweight Costs and the Size of Government," Journal of Law and Economics, Oct. 2003
Cowritten with Kevin M. Murphy, Social Economics, 2000
Cowritten with Guity Nashat-Becker, The Economics of Life, 1996
"Habits, Addictions and Traditions," Kyklos, 1992
A Treatise on the Family, 1981
The Economic Approach to Human Behavior, 1976
Cowritten with I. Ehrlich, "Market Insurance, Self-Insurance, and Self-Protection," Journal of Political Economy, July/Aug. 1972
"Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach," Journal of Political Economy, Mar./Apr. 1968
Human Capital and the Personal Distribution of Income: An Analytical Approach, 1967
Other:
Member, Senior Research Associate and research policy advisor to the Center for Economic Analysis of Human Behavior and Social Institutions, National Bureau of Economic Research, 1957-1979
Assistant and Associate Professor of Economics, Columbia University, 1957-1960
Assistant Professor, University of Chicago, 1954-1957
Recipient of Honorary Degrees from Hitotsubashi University (2005), Harvard University (2003), University of Athens (2002), University d'Aix-Marselles (1999), Hofstra University (1997), University of Rochester, University of Miami, University of Economics in Prague, Warsaw School of Economics (1995), University of Palermo, Columbia University (1993), Princeton University (1991), State University of New York at Stony Brook (1990), University of Illinois at Chicago (1988), Knox College, and Hebrew University (1985)
