<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<TEI xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:hal="http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/" xmlns:gml="http://www.opengis.net/gml/3.3/" xmlns:gmlce="http://www.opengis.net/gml/3.3/ce" version="1.1" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0 http://api.archives-ouvertes.fr/documents/aofr-sword.xsd">
  <teiHeader>
    <fileDesc>
      <titleStmt>
        <title>HAL TEI export of hal-03710250</title>
      </titleStmt>
      <publicationStmt>
        <distributor>CCSD</distributor>
        <availability status="restricted">
          <licence target="https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/">CC0 1.0 - Universal</licence>
        </availability>
        <date when="2026-05-20T01:54:36+02:00"/>
      </publicationStmt>
      <sourceDesc>
        <p part="N">HAL API Platform</p>
      </sourceDesc>
    </fileDesc>
  </teiHeader>
  <text>
    <body>
      <listBibl>
        <biblFull>
          <titleStmt>
            <title xml:lang="en">Subjective preferences and alternative costs</title>
            <author role="aut">
              <persName>
                <forename type="first">William</forename>
                <surname>Barnett Il</surname>
              </persName>
              <idno type="halauthorid">2537796-0</idno>
              <affiliation ref="#struct-469445"/>
            </author>
            <author role="aut">
              <persName>
                <forename type="first">Walter</forename>
                <forename type="middle">E</forename>
                <surname>Block</surname>
              </persName>
              <idno type="halauthorid">2537797-0</idno>
              <affiliation ref="#struct-469445"/>
            </author>
            <editor role="depositor">
              <persName>
                <forename>Import</forename>
                <surname>JPE</surname>
              </persName>
              <email type="md5">df2c59a495dc5908ce1562abb4b37918</email>
              <email type="domain">episciences.org</email>
            </editor>
          </titleStmt>
          <editionStmt>
            <edition n="v1" type="current">
              <date type="whenSubmitted">2022-06-30 15:04:25</date>
              <date type="whenModified">2025-09-14 21:06:06</date>
              <date type="whenReleased">2022-07-07 09:58:55</date>
              <date type="whenProduced">2013-05-27</date>
              <date type="whenEndEmbargoed">2022-06-30</date>
              <ref type="file" target="https://hal.science/hal-03710250v1/document">
                <date notBefore="2022-06-30"/>
              </ref>
              <ref type="file" subtype="publisherAgreement" n="1" target="https://hal.science/hal-03710250v1/file/vol6i2_3089.pdf" id="file-3710250-3245579">
                <date notBefore="2022-06-30"/>
              </ref>
            </edition>
            <respStmt>
              <resp>contributor</resp>
              <name key="1295591">
                <persName>
                  <forename>Import</forename>
                  <surname>JPE</surname>
                </persName>
                <email type="md5">df2c59a495dc5908ce1562abb4b37918</email>
                <email type="domain">episciences.org</email>
              </name>
            </respStmt>
          </editionStmt>
          <publicationStmt>
            <distributor>CCSD</distributor>
            <idno type="halId">hal-03710250</idno>
            <idno type="halUri">https://hal.science/hal-03710250</idno>
            <idno type="halBibtex">barnettil:hal-03710250</idno>
            <idno type="halRefHtml">&lt;i&gt;Journal of Philosophical Economics&lt;/i&gt;, 2013, Volume VI Issue 2 (2), &lt;a target="_blank" href="https://dx.doi.org/10.46298/jpe.10643"&gt;&amp;#x27E8;10.46298/jpe.10643&amp;#x27E9;&lt;/a&gt;</idno>
            <idno type="halRef">Journal of Philosophical Economics, 2013, Volume VI Issue 2 (2), &amp;#x27E8;10.46298/jpe.10643&amp;#x27E9;</idno>
            <availability status="restricted">
              <licence target="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 - Attribution - Non-commercial use - ShareAlike<ref corresp="#file-3710250-3245579"/></licence>
            </availability>
          </publicationStmt>
          <seriesStmt>
            <idno type="stamp" n="SHS">Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société</idno>
          </seriesStmt>
          <notesStmt>
            <note type="audience" n="2">International</note>
            <note type="popular" n="0">No</note>
            <note type="peer" n="1">Yes</note>
          </notesStmt>
          <sourceDesc>
            <biblStruct>
              <analytic>
                <title xml:lang="en">Subjective preferences and alternative costs</title>
                <author role="aut">
                  <persName>
                    <forename type="first">William</forename>
                    <surname>Barnett Il</surname>
                  </persName>
                  <idno type="halauthorid">2537796-0</idno>
                  <affiliation ref="#struct-469445"/>
                </author>
                <author role="aut">
                  <persName>
                    <forename type="first">Walter</forename>
                    <forename type="middle">E</forename>
                    <surname>Block</surname>
                  </persName>
                  <idno type="halauthorid">2537797-0</idno>
                  <affiliation ref="#struct-469445"/>
                </author>
              </analytic>
              <monogr>
                <idno type="halJournalId" status="VALID">106069</idno>
                <idno type="issn">1843-2298</idno>
                <idno type="eissn">1844-8208</idno>
                <title level="j">Journal of Philosophical Economics</title>
                <imprint>
                  <publisher>Editura ASE</publisher>
                  <biblScope unit="volume">Volume VI Issue 2</biblScope>
                  <biblScope unit="issue">2</biblScope>
                  <date type="datePub">2013-05-27</date>
                </imprint>
              </monogr>
              <idno type="doi">10.46298/jpe.10643</idno>
            </biblStruct>
          </sourceDesc>
          <profileDesc>
            <langUsage>
              <language ident="en">English</language>
            </langUsage>
            <textClass>
              <keywords scheme="author">
                <term xml:lang="en">indifference</term>
                <term xml:lang="en">opportunity costs</term>
              </keywords>
              <classCode scheme="halDomain" n="shs">Humanities and Social Sciences</classCode>
              <classCode scheme="halTypology" n="ART">Journal articles</classCode>
              <classCode scheme="halOldTypology" n="ART">Journal articles</classCode>
              <classCode scheme="halTreeTypology" n="ART">Journal articles</classCode>
            </textClass>
            <abstract xml:lang="en">
              <p>The present paper is an exploration of the economics of subjectivism and opportunity or alternative costs. Most contemporary economists pay lip service to these concepts, but when push comes to shove, all too often they jettison them. We shall illustrate this lapse from basic economics with a challenge that has been perplexing several modern economists: why do people always walk on staircases, but only sometimes on escalators. Landsburg (2002) misunderstood the reason people only sometimes walk on escalators, whereas they always walk on stairs. Garrison (2009) tackled the same problem, with somewhat different results. Both of them, however, are guilty of a failure to use what is perhaps the most fundamental concept in the economist’s toolkit – opportunity cost, known to an immense number of non-economists by the aphorism ‘There’s no such thing as a free lunch.’ This oversight resulted in his (their) failure to explain why people only sometimes walk on escalators, in contradistinction to the fact that they always walk on staircases.</p>
            </abstract>
          </profileDesc>
        </biblFull>
      </listBibl>
    </body>
    <back>
      <listOrg type="structures">
        <org type="institution" xml:id="struct-469445" status="INCOMING">
          <orgName>Loyola University, New Orleans</orgName>
          <desc>
            <address>
              <country key="US"/>
            </address>
          </desc>
        </org>
      </listOrg>
    </back>
  </text>
</TEI>