Fines are preferable to imprisonment and other types of punishment because they are more efficient. With a fine, the punishment to offenders is also revenue to the State.

Anderson senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. He is married to Guity Nashat a historian of the Middle East whose research interests overlap his own. A political conservative he wrote a monthly column for Business Week from 1985 to 2004 alternating with liberal Princeton economist Alan Blinder.

He is also among the foremost exponents of the study of human capital. He is married to Guity Nashat a historian of the Middle East whose research interests overlap his own. His approach can include altruistic behavior by defining individuals' utility appropriately.