Greetings from Finland, where I am attending the European Public Choice Society meetings.

Why did I come? Well, I've always been curious and I figured the exposure would be good.

Was it worth the trip? In a nutshell: YES! It's a decent sized group (about 200 with 175 papers presented). There is lots of youth. And some of the established guys (e.g., Jakob de Haan, Lars Feld, Bruno Frey, Frans van Winden) are doing truly interesting empirical work (think Virginia, not social choice math-sturbation). Some of it has implications for U.S. Quick example. One paper empirically estimated the impact of independent policy auditing agencies in Swiss cantons/localities. Where there is genuine auditing, taxes and spending are lower by 18-20% and that's controlling for public good attributes (quality). It's a substantive binding constraint on policymaker waste, something I think would be great for our Department of Homeland Security (just to name one big example).

Why am I bloggin about it? Next year there will be a "world congress" of the Euro, Japanese, and US societies in.....drum roll please.....: Amsterdam. I encourage anyone interested in applied political economy (empirical Virginia public choice) to think seriously about attending and presenting. I had a great time with these guys, especially the grad student crew from Groningen. They're friendly, young, energetic, smart, and have a way different perspective. You should go next year. It will be worth it. (Plus, these Europeans need more free market arguments put in front of them....)