Welcome to Econ Talk brought to you by the Library of Economics and Liberty. I'm your host,

Russ Roberts of George Mason University and Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

My guest today is Don Boudreau, Chairman of the Economics Department here at George Mason,

and my co-host at Cafe Hayek, the blog we write together.

Our topic today is Friedrich Hayek, who I sometimes think of as the best economist

most people haven't heard of. His most famous book is The Road to Serfdom,

and that's the book most people read if they're going to read something by Hayek.

But today we're going to focus on Hayek's book Law, Legislation and Liberty,

and in particular on Volume 1, which is subtitled Rules and Order.

Don, welcome to Econ Talk. Good to be here. Now, law, legislation and liberty is,

you tell me your favorite book by Hayek. Why is that? What do you love about it, and how should

you come to the book? Not only my favorite book by Hayek, it's probably my favorite book of

of all time with Richard Dawkins' Blind Watchmaker being the only contender.

Not Anna Karenina? That's my favorite novel.

I came to, I was in college at Nickel State University and my professor there Bill Field.

Introduced me to Hayek. And so I'd read Use of Knowledge in Society, The Road to Serfdom,

and I think by then also the Constitution of Liberty. And it was, I believe, the summer of 1979,

just before my senior year. I ordered from Lacey Fair Books, the first two volumes of Law

Legislation and Liberty. The third volume wasn't out yet, came out later that year.

And I was very excited about Hayek and about his work and I read the book as soon as it arrived.

I can remember being just tearing the cellophane wrapper off of it when it arrived at my parents'

home. And the scholarship and the depth of the book immediately impressed me. It was deeper,

...