Leeson began writing about economics as a teenager:
In 1997, Mackinac Center for Public Policy President Lawrence W. Reed read an articulate letter to the editor...that scolded a previous writer for poor economic analysis of a public policy issue. Reed contacted the writer, assuming that he was a professor of some sort. In fact, the author was a 17-year-old Dow High School student, Peter Leeson.[7]
As an 18-year-old, Leeson was invited by an economics professor at Northwood University to lecture in his course.[7]
Leeson proposed marriage to his now-wife, Ania, in the preface of his book The Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates.[9] Ania also appears as one of the characters in his book WTF?! An Economic Tour of the Weird.[10] Leeson has a tattoo of a supply and demand curve on his right biceps[11] and is an avid cigar smoker.[12][13][14] He illustrated his book WTF?![13]
Work
Economics of piracy
Leeson's Invisible Hook argues that Caribbean pirates developed an early form of constitutional democracy and engaged in behaviors such as flying the Jolly Roger because doing so maximized their profit.[15]
Although Leeson is careful to note that he does not praise the criminal actions of pirates, he argues that their self-organization is a useful illustration of how even criminal conduct is based on rational self-interest. In an interview published by The New York Times, Leeson summarized his thesis:
The idea of the invisible hook is that pirates, though they're criminals, are still driven by their self-interest. So they were driven to build systems of government and social structures that allowed them to better pursue their criminal ends.... The reason that the criminality is driving these structures is because they can't rely on the state to provide those structures for them. So pirates, more than anyone else, needed to figure out some system of law and order to make it possible for them to remain together long enough to be successful at stealing.[19]
Leeson's book WTF?! argues that practices which seem senseless, such as trial by ordeal, trial by combat, and oracular divination, are in fact clever solutions devised by people to overcome social problems.[23] A recurrent theme in his work is that "people—all of them, regardless of time or place, religion or culture, wealth, poverty, or anything else—are rational."[24] Similarly, he maintains that all institutions, including those "that seem obviously inefficient—and, indeed, sometimes downright absurd—are in fact, on closer inspection, efficient and not so absurd after all."[25]
Steven Levitt has described Leeson's book as "Freakonomics on steroids"[26][27] and described Leeson as "one of the most creative young economists around."[28]Tim Harford called Leeson's WTF?! "one of the most original books I've ever read."[29]
Economics of anarchy
Leeson has written extensively on what he describes as "the economics of anarchy" and has suggested that "self-governance works better than you think."[30]Avinash Dixit described Leeson's book Anarchy Unbound: Why Self-Governance Works Better Than You Think as "an eye-opener," and Robert Ellickson described it as "masterly."[31] According to Leeson:
[T]he case for anarchy derives its strength from empirical evidence, not theory.... Despite... significant arenas of anarchy we do not observe perpetual world war in the absence of global government, shriveling international commerce in the absence of supranational commercial law, or even deteriorating standards of living in Somalia. On the contrary, peace overwhelmingly prevails between the world's countries, international trade is flourishing, and Somali development has improved under statelessness.[30]
Leeson has concentrated on the study of the problem of order where no formal law exists, showing how in such diverse situations as trade among strangers, banditry in colonial West Central Africa and modern Somalia, and life in pirate societies over the ages often informal rules emerge that allow order to be preserved without heavy-handed government control.[32]
Views
Leeson stated in a column regarding Ronald Reagan and foreign policy, "Reagan's foreign policy was predicated on the use of military intervention to achieve the political and economic outcomes his administration was after in foreign countries. I am advocating precisely the opposite—that no such intervention would be desirable."[33]
Books
WTF?! An Economic Tour of the Weird. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2017. ISBN978-1503600911
The Economic Role of the State. (ed. with P. Boettke). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2015.
Anarchy Unbound: Why Self-Governance Works Better Than You Think. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014. ISBN978-1107025806
The Secrets of Pirate Management. Princeton: Princeton Shorts, 2012. ISBN978-1400843169
^Pellien, Jessica. "Peter Leeson Proposes an Economic Love Story." Princeton University Press. March 30, 2009. [7] For further information, see this interview.
^Leeson, Peter T. WTF?! An Economic Tour of the Weird Stanford University Press. 2017. p. 11.
^Crain, Caleb. "Bootylicious: What do the Pirates of Yore Tell us About Their Modern Counterparts." The New Yorker. September 7, 2009.
[8]
^Braun,
Bob. "Pirates Provide Opportunity for Quirky Study of Economics." The Star-Ledger June 29, 2009. [9]
^ abLeeson, Peter T. WTF?! An Economic Tour of the Weird Stanford University Press. 2017. p. 191
^Leeson, Peter T. "An Austrian Approach to Law and Economics, with Special Reference to Superstition." Review of Austrian Economics 25(3): 185–198. [10]
^ abHagen, Ryan. "Pirate Economics 101: A Q&A With Invisible Hook Author Peter Leeson." Freakonomics Blog. New York Times. April 20, 2009. [11]
^Leeson, Peter. "In Defense of Pirates (The Old Time Ones)." National Public Radio. April 10, 2009. [12]
^CGP Grey. "How to be a Pirate: Captain Edition." cgpgrey.com. May 30, 2020. [13]
^CGP Grey. "How to be a Pirate: Quartermaster Edition." cgpgrey.com. June 2, 2020. [14]
^Leeson, Peter T. WTF?! An Economic Tour of the Weird Stanford University Press. 2017.
^Leeson, Peter T. WTF?! An Economic Tour of the Weird Stanford University Press. 2017. p.
XII
^Leeson, Peter T. "Why did Pirates Choose Democracy? And Some Thoughts on the Efficient Institutions View." Coordinationproblem.org. April 20, 2013. [15]