Empirical investigations and their normative interpretations: A reply to Barnett and Block

Barnett and Block (Public Choice 140(1–2):1–13, 2009) disagree with some of the points put forward in an empirical study on the pre-1836 English lighthouse system (Cambridge Journal of Economics 30(3):389–502, 2006). They claim first that some private lighthouses were built and maintained for charitable purposes, which in fact does not refute my argument. Second, they misrepresent my empirical analysis, to make it ideological, which they thereafter intend to refute by contradictory ideological assertions. They finally change the evaluation criteria: The efficiency criterion is no longer used and liberty is taken as the ultimate goal.