1592 Ergebnisse
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.
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.
This book highlights the political economy of wealth and income inequality in Latin America. The author segments his analysis to separately evaluate the economic, social, and political costs of inequality building on country case studies. It draws well-contextualized lessons from the Latin American experience that is important to consider for other regional contexts, especially for social policies of nations within the 'Middle Income Trap'.
Zu der kurzen Frage „Haben oder Sein?“ entwickelt Erich Fromm in diesem Buch eine tiefgründige Gesellschaftsanalyse, in der er zwei grundsätzliche Existenzformen herausarbeitet: die egoistisch-gewinnorientierte des Besitzens und Verfügens über Dinge und Menschen (Haben) und die altruistisch-solidarische des gebenden Erlebens (Sein). Fromm zeigt, dass unser gegenwärtiges Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftssystem durch Egoismus, Selbstsucht und Habgier bestimmt ist und unweigerlich zerstörerische Folgen für Mensch und Natur mit sich bringt. Im zweiten Teil des Buches vermittelt er dem Leser durch viele Beispielen Ideen, wie er sich vom „Haben“ in Richtung „Sein“ und damit hin zu einem neuen Menschen entwickeln kann. Im dritten Teil von „Haben oder Sein“ beschreibt Fromm die Voraussetzungen für einen fundamentalen Wandel in Wirtschaft, Politik und Gesellschaft, um die gegenwärtigen Krise zu überwinden und von einer Orientierung am Haben zu einer am Sein zu gelangen.
Markets are the focus in modern economics: when they work, when they don’t and what we can or can’t do about it. There are many ways to study markets and how we do so will inevitably affect our conclusions about them, including policy recommendations which can influence governments and other major organisations. Pluralism can be a vital corrective to enacting real policies based on only one perspective and a plethora of approaches provide alternatives to the canonical view. Although they have differing implications, these approaches share the idea that we should take a historical approach, analysing markets on a case-by-case basis; and they share a faith in the power of both individuals and collectives to overcome the problems encountered when organising economic activity.
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.
Lean Logic is the late David Fleming’s masterpiece, the product of more than thirty years’ work and a testament to the creative brilliance of one of Britain’s most important intellectuals. A dictionary unlike any other, it leads readers through Fleming’s stimulating exploration of fields as diverse as culture, history, science, art, logic, ethics, myth, economics, and anthropology, being made up of four hundred and four engaging essay-entries covering topics such as Boredom, Community, Debt, Growth, Harmless Lunatics, Land, Lean Thinking, Nanotechnology, Play, Religion, Spirit, Trust, and Utopia. The threads running through every entry are Fleming’s deft and original analysis of how our present market-based economy is destroying the very foundations—ecological, economic, and cultural— on which it depends, and his core focus: a compelling, grounded vision for a cohesive society that might weather the consequences
"This eleven-week course offers a pluralist introduction to political economy and economics. We will examine nine (9) competing schools of thought, each of which offer an original and distinctive illumination of economic and social reality. The course offers a level of learning that would at least match that which is offered by a University. However, you do not need to be connected to a university or to have studied political economy or economics previously to enrol in this particular subject."
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.
What influence do changes in tax policy or state decisions on expenditure have on economic growth? For decades, this question has been controversially debated.
The most successful multialternative theories of decision making assume that people consider individual aspects of a choice and proceed via a process of elimination. Amos Tversky was one of the pioneers of this field, but modern decision theorists – most notably Neil Stewart – have moved things forward. At the current stage the theories are able to explain a number of strictly ‘irrational’ but reasonable quirks of human decision making, including various heuristics and biases. Not only this, but eye movements of participants strongly imply that the decision-making process depicted in the theories is an accurate one.
Nahezu alle Bereiche unseres Lebens sind vom Wachstums- und Beschleunigungsdenken geprägt. Die Grundannahme des ewig andauernden Wirtschaftswachstums ist dabei an das Versprechen von Wohlstand und Reichtum geknüpft.
In this teaching pack, we take a look at satellite crop monitoring and how it is used for both real and financial economic activities. By looking at commodity futures, we give students a sense of what financialization can mean. In the active exercise students learn to discuss these matters and reflect upon them.
The world's leading economist of inequality presents a short but sweeping and surprisingly optimistic history of human progress toward equality despite crises, disasters, and backsliding.
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.
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.
An essay of the writing workshop on Nigeria’s Readiness for and the Effect of the Fourth Industrial Revolution
Since 2007, central banks of industrialized countries have counteracted financial instability, recession, and deflationary risks with unprecedented monetary policy operations. While generally regarded as successful, these measures also led to an exceptional increase in the size of central bank balance sheets. The book first introduces the subject by explaining monetary policy operations in normal times, including the key instruments (open market operations, standing facilities, reserve requirements, and the collateral framework).
Bedingungsloser Zugang zu den Gütern, die unser Leben möglich und schön machen – und das für alle: Das ist Öffentlicher Luxus! Vom öffentlichen Nahverkehr, der Autos überflüssig macht, zu einem öffentlichen Raum, in dem niemand ausgeschlossen wird oder sich vor der Polizei fürchten muss. Von sicherer Versorgung und guter Arbeit in Bildung und Gesundheit zu gutem und günstigem Wohnraum zu erneuerbarer Energie für alle. All das ist machbar!
Andere Formen des Wirtschaftens zu entwickeln, die nicht auf dem Fetisch Wachstum beruhen, sondern auf soziale Gerechtigkeit und Nachhaltigkeit setzen, ist mehr denn je ein Gebot der Stunde. Solange Unwissenheit, Gier und Aggression die Entscheidungen in Wirtschaft, Politik sowie auf privater Ebene dominieren, werden wir weiter unsere Lebensgrundlagen zerstören.
In the history of the social sciences, few individuals have exerted as much influence as has Jeremy Bentham. His attempt to become “the Newton of morals” has left a marked impression upon the methodology and form of analysis that social sciences like economics and political science have chosen as modus operandi.
If there’s one method economists have neglected the most, it’s qualitative research. Whereas economists favour mathematical models and statistics, qualitative research seeks to understand the world through intensive investigation of particular circumstances, which usually entails interviewing people directly about their experiences. While this may sound simple to quantitative types the style, purpose, context, and interpretation of an interview can vary widely. Because of this variety, I have written a longer post than usual on this topic rather than doing it a disservice. Having said that, examples of qualitative research in economics are sadly scant enough that it doesn’t warrant multiple posts. In this post I will introduce qualitative research in general with nods to several applications including the study of firm behaviour, race, Austrian economics, and health economics. More than usual I will utilise block quotes, which I feel is in the spirit of the topic.
This is an introductory course into economics that navigates the intellectual history of political economy in a self-contained and non-technical manner. The course centres on the classical concept of political economy by emphasizing the moral and ethical problems that markets solve or may not solve.
Who are the 86 laureates of the economics “Nobel prize”, and what are their scientific contributions? This course will present the major concepts, theories, and results in modern economics, through an overview of the work of a selection of economics “Nobel prize” as well as Leontief prize laureates.
Die Makroökonomie ist fester Kernbestandteil der Wirtschaftswissenschaften In der Lehre wird hierbei nicht nur in Deutschland auf sehr wenige Lehrbücher zurückgegriffen Dieser Beitrag geht der Frage nach wie einseitig oder plural die makroökonomischen Lehrbücher sind an denen kein Studierender vorbeikommt Zunächst wird näher bestimmt was den vorherrschenden Mainstream und kontrastierend …
The global financial crisis (GFC) led to increasing distrust in economic research and the economics profession, in the process of which the current state of economics and economic education in particular were heavily criticized. Against this background we conducted a study with undergraduate students of economics in order to capture their view of economic education.
This lecture takes a look at the consequences of COVID 19 from a feminist economics perspective Professor Kabeer analyses a range of different impacts associated with COVID 19 and explores the kinds of policies that such a feminist economics lens would suggest for a more resilient and equitable future Naila …
The course will teach students to analyze the goals, implementation, and outcomes of economic policy.
Die Mikroökonomie ist fester Kernbestandteil der Wirtschaftswissenschaften In der Lehre wird hierbei nicht nur in Deutschland auf sehr wenige Lehrbücher zurückgegriffen Dieses Buch geht der Frage nach wie einseitig oder plural diese Lehrbücher sind an denen kein Studierender vorbeikommt Zunächst wird näher bestimmt was den vorherrschenden Mainstream und kontrastierend eine …
The website contains a vast amount of information on the history of economic thought. It presents thinkers, their main works (and links to those works) and schools of thought which are sorted by political economy schools, neoclassical schools, alternative schools as well as thematic schools.
Braucht Wissenschaft Pluralismus? Sind ökonomische Modelle Theorien und wie setzen sich Theorien praktisch durch? Ausgehend von zwei wissenschaftstheoretischen Perspektiven nähert sich Jakob Kapeller diesen und anderen Fragen.
Der Beitrag befasst sich mit der Schaffung finanztheoretischer Rahmenbedingungen hinsichtlich einer sozial-ökologischen Transformation der heutigen Wirtschaftsweise durch gezielt-effiziente Anpassung der Geschäftstätigkeit des globalen Bankensektors unter Betrachtung der resultierenden Folgewirkungen zwecks hinreichender Zielerfüllung im Sinne des Pariser Abkommens.
Wie erfüllen und finanzieren wir die Ziele des Pariser Abkommen / Climate Agreement (Social Development Goals (SDG) & Environmental Social Governance (ESG)) in nur noch 30 Jahren? Eine mögliche Antwort.
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