Background
Block, Michael Kent was born on April 2, 1942 in New York City. Son of Philip and Roslyn (Klein) Block.
Block, Michael Kent was born on April 2, 1942 in New York City. Son of Philip and Roslyn (Klein) Block.
AB, Stanford University, 1964. A.M., Stanford University, 1969. Doctor of Philosophy, Stanford University, 1972.
Research analyst Bank of America, San Francisco, 1965-1966. Research associate Planning Associates, 1966-1967. Assistant professor economics University Santa Clara, 1969-1972.
Assistant professor economics department operations research and administrative science Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California, 1972-1974, associate professor, 1974-1976. Research fellow Hoover Institution, Stanford University, 1975-1976, senior research fellow, 1976-1987. Director Center for Econometric Studies of Justice System, 1977-1981.
Partner Block & Nold, Consultant, Palo Alto, California, 1980-1981. Associate professor management, economics and law University Arizona, Tucson, 1982-1985, professor economics and law, since 1989. Member United States Sentencing Commission, Washington, 1985-1989.
Executive vice president Cybernomics, Tucson, 1991—2002. President Goldwater Institute for Public Policy, Phoenix, 1992—2002. Senior policy adviser State of Arizona Governor Symington, 1996-1997.
Chair Basis School Board, since 1998. Member Arizona Residential Utility Consumer Board, 1995-1996, chairman Arizona Constitutional Defense Council, 1994-1997, Arizona Juvenile Justice Advisory Council, 1996-1997. Seminar director Economic Development Institute/World Bank, 1992-1995.
Consultant in field.
Author: (with H.G. Demmert) Workbook and Programmed Guide to Economics, 1974, 77, 80, (with James M. Clabault) A Legal and Economic Analysis of Criminal Antitrust Indictments:, 1955-1980. Contributor articles to professional publications.
Throughout my career I have been interested in the application of economic analysis to legal issues. My early research efforts were centred around the individual choice problem, specifically the criminal’s or potential criminal’s choice of how much, if any, effort to devote to
stealing and how much effort to devote to working. The application of the traditional choice theoretic model to this rather unusual problem led to contributions in two areas.
First, the direct results of this application, including the finding that the deterrence results derived by Gary Becker and refined by Issac Ehrlich held only under quite special circumstances. While this result is cited quite frequently and is a technically correct point that needed to be made, I’ve come to regard it as an appropriate activity only for a newly minted Doctor of Philosophy. Second, and I think somewhat more important than the direct implications of this application, were my ‘spin off’ results.
In order to derive general deterrence results, it was necessary to solve the labour supply problem under uncertainty. I think the results here, especially the implication that income uncertainty may actually increase the labour supply, are more durable and certainly of more general interest than the deterrence results.
Over time my focus has shifted and I have become much more concerned with empirical verification of theory. My recent work is concerned with the decision to fix prices.
In a sense this has brought me closer to the mainstream in economics. Moreover, I think in this area it is the empirical testing of the deterrent effort, i.e., estimating the effect of antitrust enforcement on prices, that has been my contribution. At this stage of my career, I am somewhat more interested in solving the problem of ‘how do we test it’ than in signing derivatives.
Fellow Progress and Freedom Foundation. Member American Economic Association, Phi Beta Kappa.
Married Carole Arline Polansky, August 30, 1964 (divorced). Children: Robert Justin, Tamara Nicole. Married Olga Vyborna, December 1, 1996.