J. Barkley Rosser, Jr
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
The Economics of Influence David Colander College Professor
The Economics of Influence David Colander College Professor, Middlebury College [email protected] Paper prepared for the AFFE Session of the ASSA Meetings Social Control in the Modern Economy Session January 4th, 2014 2:30 pm Loews Philadelphia Hotel, Regency Ballroom C1 Association for Evolutionary Economics Abstract The economics profession has fallen into the habit of telling a limited “economics of control” policy story in their teaching of economics. It is a useful story for many purposes, but it leaves out important elements of policy. This paper briefly goes through the history of how the profession got to its current policy story and argues that a newly developed complexity theory offers a richer policy story— one in which the government and market coevolve and the role of government policy is to positively influence that evolution, not to control the system. It concludes with a discussion some of the implications that accepting the economics of influence approach to policy would have for the story economists tell about policy. Key Words: Economic Policy, complexity, coevolve, influence, JEL Codes: A11, B00, B30 The Economics of Influence David Colander We economists tell stories embedded in models, and currently our policy story discussion follows directly from our models. The story we tell in both microeconomics and macroeconomics is the “economics of control” story—it is a story of how the market works reasonably well, but not perfectly due to externalities, public goods and market imperfections. But not to fear. The government is there to see that the market works right—to offset externalities, to provide public goods, and to correct for market imperfections. -
THE ECONOMIST WATCHER: ECONOMIC CONTRIBUTIONS of DAVID COLANDER Richard P.F. Holt Southern Oregon University [email protected] J. B
THE ECONOMIST WATCHER: ECONOMIC CONTRIBUTIONS OF DAVID COLANDER Richard P.F. Holt Southern Oregon University [email protected] J. Barkley Rosser, Jr. James Madison University [email protected] July, 2017 The Economist Watcher: Economic Contributions of David Colander Abstract: This paper gives an appraisal of the work of David Colander. After a brief biographical summary, we look at his work in methodology and the role that institutions and “vision” play in his economic analysis. A crucial part of this has been viewing not only the economy but the economics profession itself as an adaptive complex system. This leads us to his major contributions to macroeconomics and economic education. We conclude with an overall assessment of his work to economics. Introduction There’s probably no other economist since John Kenneth Galbraith that has written so much about the myopic vision and foibles of the economic profession than David Colander. For decades, he has been watching and observing the economic profession. Overall, he hasn’t been happy with what he has seen. Though Colander doesn’t necessarily look at himself as a “dissenter,” he does admit to being “a gadfly” who works “hard and long” to come up with answers to economic problems by using what he calls the Yeah criterion: “A satisfactory explanation [that] involves an inner sense – an intuition – that tells me, Yeah, that’s right; that’s the way it works.”1 He also admits to being the “economics Court Jester, who says what everyone knows, but which everyone in polite company knows better than to say.”2 When one looks closely at Colander’s work, he has shown from the very beginning a dissatisfaction with how conventional economics has been practiced from its obsession with deductive and formalistic models to its lack of interest in understanding real-world problems. -
Agent-Based Models and Economic Policy
AGENT-BASED MODELS AND ECONOMIC POLICY edited by Jean-Luc Gaffard and Mauro Napoletano AGENT-BASED MODELS AND ECONOMIC POLICY f Revue de l’OFCE / Debates and policies OFCE L’Observatoire français des conjonctures économiques est un organisme indépendant de prévision, de recherche et d’évaluation des politiques publiques. Créé par une convention passée entre l'État et la Fondation nationale des sciences politiques approuvée par le décret n° 81.175 du 11 février 1981, l'OFCE regroupe plus de 40 chercheurs français et étrangers, auxquels s’associent plusieurs Research fellows de renommée internationale (dont trois prix Nobel). « Mettre au service du débat public en économie les fruits de la rigueur scientifique et de l’indépendance universitaire », telle est la mission que l’OFCE remplit en conduisant des travaux théoriques et empiriques, en participant aux réseaux scientifiques internationaux, en assurant une présence régulière dans les médias et en coopérant étroitement avec les pouvoirs publics français et européens. Philippe Weil préside l’OFCE depuis 2011, à la suite de Jean-Paul Fitoussi, qui a succédé en 1989 au fondateur de l'OFCE, Jean-Marcel Jeanneney. Le président de l'OFCE est assisté d'un conseil scientifique qui délibère sur l'orientation de ses travaux et l'utilisation des moyens. Président Philippe Weil Direction Estelle Frisquet, Jean-Luc Gaffard, Jacques Le Cacheux, Henri Sterdyniak, Xavier Timbeau Comité de rédaction Christophe Blot, Jérôme Creel, Estelle Frisquet, Gérard Cornilleau, Jean-Luc Gaffard, Éric Heyer, Éloi Laurent, Jacques Le Cacheux, Françoise Milewski, Lionel Nesta, Hélène Périvier, Mathieu Plane, Henri Sterdyniak, Xavier Timbeau Publication Philippe Weil (directeur de la publication), Gérard Cornilleau (rédacteur en chef), Laurence Duboys Fresney (secrétaire de rédaction), Najette Moummi (responsable de la fabrication) Contact OFCE, 69 quai d’Orsay 75340 Paris cedex 07 Tel. -
The Changing Face of Mainstream Economics by David Colander Ric
The Changing Face of Mainstream Economics by David Colander Ric Holt Barkley Rosser November 2003 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE ECONOMICS DISCUSSION PAPER NO. 03-27 DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE MIDDLEBURY, VERMONT 05753 http://www.middlebury.edu/~econ The Changing Face of Mainstream Economics David Colander, Ric Holt and Barkley Rosser 1. Introduction If one reads the heterodox literature in economics these days, one gets the impression that modern mainstream economics is much like the economics of 50 years ago; it is called neoclassical economics and is criticized in much the same way that earlier heterodox economists criticized the mainstream economics of the 1950s or 1960s. In this paper we argue that much of this criticism today is off the mark because mainstream economic thinking has changed. We argue that economics is moving away from a strict adherence to the holy trinity—rationality, selfishness, and equilibrium—to a more eclectic position of purposeful behavior, enlightened self-interest and sustainability. The paper develops our ideas by considering the nature of that change and the process and sociological dynamics by which the profession changes. 2. The Profession as a Complex System To understand our argument it is helpful to think of the profession as a complex system. Complex systems cannot be understood from assumed first principles; they can only be understood through the process of change that underlies them. In the same way, the economics profession can best be understood by the process of change that characterizes it. Most considerations of the economics profession have tended to take a static view of the profession, which makes it seem as if it is an unchanging entity. -
David Colander
The Making of an Economist II by David Colander September 2004 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE ECONOMICS DISCUSSION PAPER NO. 04-20 DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE MIDDLEBURY, VERMONT 05753 http://www.middlebury.edu/~econ The Making of an Economist II David Colander Individuals are not born as economists; they are molded through formal and informal training. This training shapes the way they approach problems, process information, and carry out research. That in turn influences the policies they favor and the role they play in society. The economics profession changes as cohorts with older-style training are replaced with cohorts with newer-style training. In many ways the replicator dynamics of graduate school play a larger role in determining economists’ methodology and approach than all the myriad papers written about methodology. Arjo Klamer and I came to that belief in the early 1980s and it led us to publish our “Making of an Economist” (Colander and Klamer 1987) which in turn led to a much more thorough study of graduate economics education. (Hansen et al. 1991) Since that time I have been receiving numerous suggestions to update our earlier study.1 This paper is the update. The paper reports the findings of a survey and interviews with graduate students at seven top-ranking graduate economics programs: University of Chicago, Columbia University, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Yale University, and Princeton University. It explores who current graduate students are and what they think -
The Changing Face of Mainstream Economics ?
THE CHANGING FACE OF MAINSTREAM ECONOMICS ? Tim Thornton It has become increasingly fashionable to argue that economics is undergoing a process of fundamental change and that political economists are failing to recognise and productively adjust to this new reality. Such claims require analysis and response from political economists1. Those proclaiming a changed economics abound. Diane Coyle in her book The Soulful Science: What Economists Really Do and Why It Matters (Coyle 2007) argues that economics is now in a new and exciting phase. She sees the early to mid 1980’s as the high watermark for neoclassical economics. According to Coyle, it was then that the neoclassical research programme came to be recognised as having become excessive, indulgent and faintly ridiculous. Since this time, Coyle views economics as having been in a process of steady retreat from absurdity. Somewhat 2 similarly, John B Davis argues that, while neoclassical economics continues to dominate the curriculum, the mainstream research frontier differs from neoclassical economics and has as much in common with established heterodox schools as with neoclassical economics. Davis argues that the mainstream research frontier is now best classified as being ‘mainstream heterodox’. It is further argued that there is a new generation of PhD students working in the mainstream research frontier and these younger scholars will slowly start to steer 1 The terms ‘political economy’ and ‘heterodox economists’ are synonymous for the purposes of this paper. 2 I use the word ‘somewhat’ here because in some respects Davis’s analysis is more nuanced and also leads on to other arguments that are different to authors such as Coyle and Colander. -
What Was “It” That Robbins Was Defining? by David Colander (Middlebury College) August 2007 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE ECONOMICS
What Was “It” That Robbins Was Defining? by David Colander (Middlebury College) August 2007 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE ECONOMICS DISCUSSION PAPER NO. 07-06 DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE MIDDLEBURY, VERMONT 05753 http://www.middlebury.edu/~econ What Was “It” that Robbins Was Defining? David Colander Middlebury College Abstract This paper argues that Robbins’ famous definition of economics was of “economic science” which he saw as only a narrow branch of the field of economics. Moreover, it was descriptive, not prescriptive, and was simply a statement that that was what economists were then doing in the science of economics. His prescriptive message was that policy belonged in the “political economy” branch of economics, and that the science of economics should avoid value judgments, but that political economy should include value judgments. That prescriptive message has been lost. Key Words: definition of economics, political economy, science of economics, Robbins, value judgments. What Was “It” that Robbins Was Defining? David Colander Middlebury College There has been a renewed interest in Lionel Robbins’ famous essay on the nature and significance of economic science (Robbins, 1932). An important reason for this interest is that currently economics is in a state of flux. The rational agent maximizing model is no longer the glue that holds the profession together, as the economics trinity of greed, rationality and equilibrium is giving way to a new trinity of enlightened self interest, bounded rationality, and sustainability (Kreps, 1997). Behavioral economics is flourishing, and new branches of economics, such as neuroeconomics, experimental economics, econophysics, evolutionary game theory, and complexity economics are developing and changing the face of economics theory (Colander, Holt and Rosser, 2004). -
The Making of an Economist Redux
Journal of Economic Perspectives—Volume 19, Number 1—Winter 2005—Pages 175–198 The Making of an Economist Redux David Colander ndividuals are not born as economists; they are molded through formal and informal training. This training shapes the way they approach problems, I process information and carry out research, which in turn influences the policies they favor and the role they play in society. The economics profession changes as cohorts with older-style training are replaced with cohorts with newer- style training. In many ways, the replicator dynamics of graduate school play a larger role in determining economists’ methodology and approach than all the myriad papers written about methodology. Arjo Klamer and I came to that belief in the early 1980s, and it led us to publish our “Making of an Economist” (Colander and Klamer, 1987), which in turn led to a much more thorough study by a Commission on Graduate Education in Economics appointed by the American Economic Association (Hansen et al., 1991). Over the years, I have received numerous suggestions to update our earlier study.1 This paper is the update. The paper reports the findings of a survey and interviews with graduate students at seven top-ranking graduate economics programs: University of Chicago, Columbia University, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Yale University and Princeton University. It consists of two parts. The first part explores who current graduate students are and what they think 1 I did this study alone because Arjo has since moved to the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands and is no longer involved in U.S. -
The Making of an Economist Redux
The Making of An Economist Redux by David Colander October 2005 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE ECONOMICS DISCUSSION PAPER NO. 05-31 DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE MIDDLEBURY, VERMONT 05753 http://www.middlebury.edu/~econ Journal of Economic Perspectives—Volume 19, Number 1—Winter 2005—Pages 173-198 The Making of an Economist Redux David Colander ndividuals are not born as economists; they are molded through formal and informal training. This training shapes the way they approach problems, I process information and carry out research, which in turn influences the policies they favor and the role they play in society. The economics profession changes as cohorts with older-style training are replaced with cohorts with newer- style training. In many ways, the replicator dynamics of graduate school play a larger role in determining economists' methodology and approach than all the myriad papers written about methodology. Arjo Klamer and I came to that belief in the early 1980s, and it led us to publish our "Making of an Economist" (Colander and Klamer, 1987), which in turn led to a much more thorough study by a Commission on Graduate Education in Economics appointed by the American Economic Association (Hansen et al., 1991). Over the years, I bave received numerous suggestions to update our earlier study. ^ This paper is the update. Tbe paper reports tbe findings of a survey and interviews with graduate students at seven top-ranking graduate economics programs: University of Chicago, Columbia University, Harvard University, Massacbusetts Institute of Tecbnology, Stanford University, Yale University and Princeton University. It consists of two parts. The first part explores who current graduate students are and what they think ' 1 did this study alone because Arjo has since moved to the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands and is no longer involved in U.S. -
The Future of Heterodox Economics
The Future of Heterodox Economics Teresa Ghilarducci, Zachary Knauss, Richard McGahey, William Milberg, Drew Landes, and Edward Nilaj Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA) Department of Economics The New School for Social Research 6 East 16th Street, New York, NY 10003 economicpolicyresearch.org Suggested Citation: Ghilarducci, T., Knauss, Z., McGahey, R., Milberg, W., Landes, D., Nilaj, E. "The Future of Heterodox Economics." Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis and Department of Economics, The New School for Social Research, Working Paper Series 2021-1.1-1. WORKING PAPER #11 2021 MAR The Future of Heterodox Economics Teresa Ghilarducci*, Zachary Knauss**, Richard McGahey***, William Milberg****, Drew Landes**, Edward Nilaj**, *Corresponding author, Schwartz Professor of Economics, The New School for Social Research ** Graduate Student, The Professor of Economics, The New School for Social Research *** Senior Fellow, SCEPA, The New School for Social Research **** Dean and Professor of Economics, The New School for Social Research 1 Abstract: We assess economics research and teaching frameworks in the United States by examining how knowledge is produced and ranked, the flaws and strengths of heterodox economic theory; and how students are trained, especially for careers in economic policy. We challenge the meaning of established terminology such as ‘heterodoxy’ and ‘mainstream’ by investigating their utility as a marker and to illuminate major barriers to the successful adoption of alternative economic theories in academia and the public discourse. Based on interviews with experienced economists working with heterodox paradigms in both mainstream and heterodox institutions, we identify three barriers 1) Neoclassical hegemony, 2) Weakness of heterodox theory, and 3) Pedagogy and training in economics. -
Omicron Delta Epsilon JR Commons Award Lecture the Scope And
Omicron Delta Epsilon J. R. Commons Award Lecture The Scope and Method of Applied Policy Economics David Colander, Middlebury College Most economists do what they do with little explicit concern for methodology. In many ways, this lack of concern about methodology is for the best; discussions of methodology quickly become esoteric and lost in epistemological mumbo jumbo designed for philosophers, not economists. But in other ways, it is problematic; methodology is fundamental to what economists do, how they go about their work, and how they think about the role they play in society. If, as J.M. Keynes put it: “economics is a method rather than a doctrine, an apparatus of the mind, a technique of thinking, which helps its possessor to draw correct conclusions”, then economics is its methodology. A likely reason why economists don’t think much about methodology is that economics is institutionally successful. Other social science fields have identity crises; economics does not. Most economists are quite self-satisfied with their technique of thinking and their implicit methodology. They see economics as the legitimate queen of the social sciences. Compared to other social scientists, economists see themselves as more precise in terms of their modeling, more empirically sophisticated; and overall more scientific. Put simply, in most economists’ view, economics’ scientific methodology is better than the methodology of the other social sciences. In this paper I challenge that self satisfaction as it relates to applied policy. I argue that economists’ current applied policy methodology: • Significantly limits the scope of economists’ policy focus, putting shackles on economists’ consideration of a wide variety of policies in an untenable attempt to let scientific methodology guide.