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The Great Recession 2.0 is unfolding before our very eyes. It is still in its early phase. But dynamics have been set in motion that are not easily stopped, or even slowed. If the virus effect were resolved by early summer—as some politicians wishfully believe—the economic dynamics set in motion would still continue. The US and global economies have been seriously ‘wounded’ and will not recover easily or soon. Those who believe it will be a ‘V-shape’ recovery are deluding themselves. Economists among them should know better but are among the most confused. They only need to look at historical parallels to convince themselves otherwise.
Origins & Emergence of the 2020 Great Recession in the US Economy
In this TedTalk Dan O Neil explains why GDP and infinite growth are concepts that we should leave behind and which other perspectives have been developed Degrowth post growth well being or steady state economy The goal is to rethink a new paradigm that puts society and the environment at …
The Economics of Enough
Relativer Güterpreis ist der Preis für eine Ware bzw. ein Produkt im Verhältnis zu einem anderen.
Relativer Güterpreis
How do people make decisions? There is a class of models in psychology which seek to answer this question but have received scant attention in economics despite some clear empirical successes. In a previous post I discussed one of these, Decision by Sampling, and this post will look at another: the so-called Fast and Frugal heuristics pioneered by the German psychologist Gerd Gigerenzer. Here the individual seeks out sufficient information to make a reasonable decision. They are ‘fast’ because they do not require massive computational effort to make a decision so can be done in seconds, and they are ‘frugal’ because they use as little information as possible to make the decision effectively.
Bounded Rationality: the Case of ‘Fast and Frugal’ Heuristics
The notion that the demand and supply side are independent is a key feature of textbook undergraduate economics and of modern macroeconomic models. Economic output is thought to be constrained by the productive capabilities of the economy - the ‘supply-side' - through technology, demographics and capital investment. In the short run a boost in demand may increase GDP and employment due to frictions such as sticky wages, but over the long-term successive rises in demand without corresponding improvements on the supply side can only create inflation as the economy reaches capacity. In this post I will explore the alternative idea of demand-led growth, where an increase in demand can translate into long-run supply side gains. This theory is most commonly associated with post-Keynesian economics, though it has been increasingly recognised in the mainstream literature.
It’s Demand All the Way Down
From the theoretical literature, the authors provide seven reasons to be sceptical about the occurrence of sufficient decoupling in the future. In addition to the extensive summary of the recent literature, 'decoupling debunked' provides a great introduction into the decoupling hypothesis.
Decoupling debunked: Evidence and arguments against green growth as a sole strategy for sustainability
Steven G. Medema is a Research Professor at Duke University. His research focuses on the History of Economic Thought, having published extensively on the issue of social costs of production (conceptualized as externalities in neoclassical economics). In this recorded seminar, he exposes his working paper on the history of the concept of externalities in economic literature, starting from Pigou’s “The Economics of Welfare” (1920), where Pigou makes the case for governmental intervention in the market where there is a divergence between private and social costs or benefits of a productive activity. T
'Exceptional and Unimportant'? The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of Externalities in Economic Analysis
Mit dem Verweis auf einen umfangreichen Kanon wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Wissens wird seitens etablierter Fachvertreterinnen und -vertreter der (Standard-)Ökonomik häufig argumentiert, dass dieser keinen Raum lasse, um Perspektiven der Pluralen Ökonomik in entsprechende Lehrveranstaltungen zu integrieren. Dagegen lässt sich anführen, dass z. B. Einführungslehrbücher der VWL mehrere 100 Seiten umfassen und der dort präsentierte Inhalt daher bereits aus praktischen Gründen für die Lehre reduziert werden muss.
Plurale Einführung in die VWL? Zu den Gestaltungsmöglichkeiten pluraler Einführungsveranstaltungen
The core of Georgism is a policy known as the Land Value Tax (LVT), a policy which Georgists claim will solve many of society and the economy’s ills. Georgism is an interesting school of thought because it has the twin properties that (1) despite a cult following, few people in either mainstream or (non-Georgist) heterodox economics pay it much heed; (2) despite not paying it much heed, both mainstream and heterodox economists largely tend to agree with Georgists. I will focus on the potential benefits Georgists argue an LVT will bring and see if they are borne out empirically. But I will begin by giving a nod to the compelling theoretical and ethical dimensions of George’s analysis, which are impossible to ignore.
It’s the Land, Stupid!
Marx’s theory of the falling rate of profit is not only empirically borne out, but the theory he proposed seems to describe accurately how that happens. Furthermore, the whole process is useful for understanding the history of contemporary capitalism.
On the Rate of Profit
Der vorliegende Sammelband unternimmt in einer Zusammenführung von didaktisch reflektierten Erfahrungsberichten erste Schritte in Richtung einer pluralen sozioökonomischen Hochschullehre In der Einleitung führen die Herausgebenden die zentralen Begründungskontexte für dieses Vorhaben zusammen die evidenzbasierte Problematisierung standardökonomischer Hochschullehre steht dabei studentischen Forderungen und konkreten Alternativen gegenüber die von ökonomischen Fachwissenschaftler innen …
Wirtschaft neu lehren
An der Leuphana Universität Lüneburg findet jedes Jahr das Leuphana-Semester statt, das alle Studierende im ersten Semester durchlaufen, bevor sie im zweiten Semester ins Fachstudium starten. Die Studierenden sollen in Projektseminaren wissenschaftliche Methoden kennen lernen und einüben, an konkreten gesellschaftlichen Problemen erproben und interdisziplinäre Lösungswege aufzeigen
Low-Profit im Kontext der UN-Nachhaltigkeitsziele
Michael Kalecki famously remarked “I have found out what economics is; it is the science of confusing stocks with flows”. Stock-Flow Consistent (SFC) models were developed precisely to address this kind of confusion. The basic intuition of SFC models is that the economy is built up as a set of intersecting balance sheets, where transactions between entities are called flows and the value of the assets/liabilities they hold are called stocks. Wages are a flow; bank deposits are a stock, and confusing the two directly is a category error. In this edition of the pluralist showcase I will first describe the logic of SFC models – which is worth exploring in depth – before discussing empirical calibration and applications of the models. Warning that there is a little more maths in this post than usual (i.e. some), but you should be able to skip those parts and still easily get the picture.
Stock Flow Consistent Macroeconomics
One of the pluralist theories which has gained prominence following the 2008 financial crisis is Hyman Minsky and his Financial Instability Hypothesis (FIH). Minsky was unique in viewing balance sheets and financial flows as the primary components of capitalist economies, and his focus on the financial system meant he was well-equipped for foresee a crisis much like 2008. Although he died long before 2008 his framework anticipated many of the processes which led to the crash, particularly increased risk-taking and financial innovation which would outstrip the abilities of regulators and central banks to manage the system.
Minsky’s Moments
Firms are the primary places where economic activity takes place in modern capitalist economies: they are where most stuff is produced; where many of us spend 40 hours a week; and where big decisions are made about how to allocate resources. Establishing how they work is hugely important because it helps us to understand patterns of production and consumption, including how firms will react to changes in economic conditions and policy. And a well-established literature – led by post-Keynesians and institutionalists – holds that the best way to determine how firms work is to…wait for it...ask firms how they work. This a clearly sensible proposition that is contested in economics for some reason, but we’ll ignore the controversy here and just explore the theory that springs from this approach.
The ‘How Firms Work’ Approach to How Firms Work
After completing the module, participants should be able to understand the economic consequences of gender inequality. They should be able to explain the contradictions between capital and care, analyze the labor market with a gender perspective and develop the ability to describe phenomena such as public policies taking into account "gender" as a category of analysis.
Feminist Economics
Ausgehend von einer Problematisierung der Fremdbestimmung, gegen die die in der Pluralen Ökonomik engagierten Studierenden und Lehrenden der Volkswirtschaftslehre protestieren, widmet sich der Beitrag der Frage, wie Hochschullehre adressatinnen- und adressatenorientiert gestaltet werden kann.
Lehre im Interesse der Studierenden: Selbstverständnis, Prinzipien und Praktiken einer bildungswirksamen Hochschullehre
Is degrowth bad economics To properly answer this question it is essential to understand what economic growth really is The term growth is often associated with an increase in wealth a term loosely defined but according to the degrowth movement economic growth is a narrower concept only describing an increase …
Is prosperous degrowth feasible?
This archive contains open access copies of most of the written work, including the books of Karl William Kapp (1910-1976) was one of the forefathers of Ecological Economics.
K. William Kapp archive
Environmental catastrophe looms large over politics: from the young person’s climate march to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal, increasing amounts of political space are devoted to the issue. Central to this debate is the question of whether economic growth inevitably leads to environmental issues such as depleted finite resources and increased waste, disruption of natural cycles and ecosystems, and of course climate change. Growth is the focal point of the de-growth and zero-growth movements who charge that despite efficiency gains, increased GDP always results in increased use of energy and emissions. On the other side of the debate, advocates of continued growth (largely mainstream economists) believe that technological progress and policies can ‘decouple’ growth from emissions.
To Grow or Not to Grow?
How countries achieve long-term GDP growth is up there with the most important topics in economics. As Nobel Laureate Robert Lucas put it “the consequences for human welfare involved in questions like these are simply staggering: once one starts to think about them, it is hard to think about anything else.” Ricardo Hausmann et al take a refreshing approach to this question in their Atlas of Economic Complexity. They argue a country’s growth depends on the complexity of its economy: it must have a diverse economy which produces a wide variety of products, including ones that cannot be produced much elsewhere. The Atlas goes into detail on exactly what complexity means, how it fits the data, and what this implies for development. Below I will offer a summary of their arguments, including some cool data visualisations.
GDP Growth: It’s Complicated
Feminist economics is a key component of the movement for pluralism in economics and one that has, to some extent, been acknowledged by the mainstream of the profession. It seeks to highlight issues which affect women because (it claims) they have not traditionally been recognised in a field dominated by men. On top of this, it seeks to carve out a space for women in the discipline, both for intrinsic reasons of fairness and diversity and because it means that women’s issues are more likely to be highlighted going forward.
Why Feminist Economics is Necessary
Jihen Chandoul, a member of the Post-Colonialisms Today Working Group, discusses the impact of import-dependency on African food supply chains since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Recovering Post-Independence Food Sovereignty for the COVID-19 Crisis
Post-Colonialisms Today researchers Kareem Megahed and Omar Ghannam discuss the importance of industrial policy during the pandemic to improve domestic capacity for manufacturing essential goods.
Egypt's Past Industrialization Project: Lessons for the COVID-19 Crisis
Post-Colonialisms Today researcher Chafik Ben Rouine looks to Tunisia’s post-independence central banking method to provide insight on what progressive monetary policy can look like.
Monetary Policy for Development, During and Beyond Crisis
In both economics textbooks and public perceptions central banks are a fact of life. On the wall of my A-level economics classroom there was the Will Rogers quote “there have been three great inventions since the beginning of time: fire, the wheel, and central banking”, summarising how many economists view the institution. There is a widespread belief that there is something different about money which calls for a central authority to manage its operation, a view shared even by staunch free marketeers such as Milton Friedman. This belief is not without justification, since money underpins every transaction in a way that apples do not, but we should always be careful not to take existing institutions for granted and central banking is no exception. In this post I will look at the idea of private or free banking, where banks compete (and cooperate) to issue their own currency.
Whither Central Banks?
Exploring Economics, an open-source e-learning platform, giving you the opportunity to discover & study a variety of economic theories, topics, and methods.
A Time for Precaution
One method of economic modelling that has become increasingly popular in academia, government and the private sector is Agent Based Models, or ABM. These simulate the actions and interactions of thousands or even millions of people to try to understand the economy – for this reason ABM was once described to me as being “like Sim City without the graphics”. One advantage of ABM is that it is flexible, since you can choose how many agents there are (an agent just means some kind of 'economic decision maker' like a firm, consumer, worker or government); how they behave (do they use complicated or simple rules to make decisions?); as well as the environment they act in, then just run the simulation and see what happens as they interact over time.
Agents, agents everywhere
In this article, Tetteh Hormeku-Ajei and Camden Goetz discuss the ongoing impacts of colonialism on Africa’s natural resources.
A History of Resource Plunder
This article applies insights from behavioral economics to consider how the general public may make decisions around whether or not to receive a future COVID-19 vaccine in a context of frequent side effects and preexisting mistrust. Three common cognitive biases shown to influence human decision-making under a behavioral economics framework are considered confirmation bias, negativity bias, and optimism bias.
A behavioral economics perspective on the COVID-19 vaccine amid public mistrust.
Sporting events can be seen as controlled, real-world, miniature laboratory environments, approaching the idea of “holding other things equal” when exploring the implications of decisions, incentives, and constraints in a competitive setting (Goff and Tollison 1990, Torgler 2009). Thus, a growing number of studies have used sports data to study decision-making questions that have guided behavioral economics literature.
Sport as a Behavioral Economics Lab
Ziel dieser kritischen Einführung in die Volkswirtschaft ist es, auf knappem Raum unterschiedliche Sichtweisen auf wirtschaftliche Zusammenhänge darzulegen und damit die Basis für ein differenziertes Verständnis von Ökonomie und wirtschaftspolitischen Debatten zu liefern. In Zeiten einer integrierten Weltwirtschaft, rascher Veränderungen und internationaler Krisen liegt es nahe, Wirtschaft in ihrer internationalen Dimension in den Mittelpunkt zu stellen, anstatt wie gehabt meist nationale Ökonomien isoliert zu betrachten. Miteinander asymmetrisch verbundene Entwicklungen und Veränderungen in Nord und Süd, die auf globaler sowie zwischen nationaler und regionaler Ebene stattfinden, stellen somit einen zentralen Bezugspunkt dar. Daher der Titel des Buches: Ökonomie und internationale Entwicklung.
Eine kritische Einführung in die Ökonomie
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