Thinking Like an Economist by Robert Frank Microeconomics and Behavior
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A Hayekian Theory of Social Justice
A HAYEKIAN THEORY OF SOCIAL JUSTICE Samuel Taylor Morison* As Justice gives every Man a Title to the product of his honest Industry, and the fair Acquisitions of his Ancestors descended to him; so Charity gives every Man a Title to so much of another’s Plenty, as will keep him from ex- tream want, where he has no means to subsist otherwise. – John Locke1 I. Introduction The purpose of this essay is to critically examine Friedrich Hayek’s broadside against the conceptual intelligibility of the theory of social or distributive justice. This theme first appears in Hayek’s work in his famous political tract, The Road to Serfdom (1944), and later in The Constitution of Liberty (1960), but he developed the argument at greatest length in his major work in political philosophy, the trilogy entitled Law, Legis- lation, and Liberty (1973-79). Given that Hayek subtitled the second volume of this work The Mirage of Social Justice,2 it might seem counterintuitive or perhaps even ab- surd to suggest the existence of a genuinely Hayekian theory of social justice. Not- withstanding the rhetorical tenor of some of his remarks, however, Hayek’s actual con- clusions are characteristically even-tempered, which, I shall argue, leaves open the possibility of a revisionist account of the matter. As Hayek understands the term, “social justice” usually refers to the inten- tional doling out of economic rewards by the government, “some pattern of remunera- tion based on the assessment of the performance or the needs of different individuals * Attorney-Advisor, Office of the Pardon Attorney, United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.; e- mail: [email protected]. -
Public Goods in Everyday Life
Public Goods in Everyday Life By June Sekera A GDAE Teaching Module on Social and Environmental Issues in Economics Global Development And Environment Institute Tufts University Medford, MA 02155 http://ase.tufts.edu/gdae Copyright © June Sekera Reproduced by permission. Copyright release is hereby granted for instructors to copy this module for instructional purposes. Students may also download the reading directly from https://ase.tufts.edu/gdae Comments and feedback from course use are welcomed: Global Development And Environment Institute Tufts University Somerville, MA 02144 http://ase.tufts.edu/gdae E-mail: [email protected] PUBLIC GOODS IN EVERYDAY LIFE “The history of civilization is a history of public goods... The more complex the civilization the greater the number of public goods that needed to be provided. Ours is far and away the most complex civilization humanity has ever developed. So its need for public goods – and goods with public goods aspects, such as education and health – is extraordinarily large. The institutions that have historically provided public goods are states. But it is unclear whether today’s states can – or will be allowed to – provide the goods we now demand.”1 -Martin Wolf, Financial Times 1 Martin Wolf, “The World’s Hunger for Public Goods”, Financial Times, January 24, 2012. 2 PUBLIC GOODS IN EVERYDAY LIFE TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................4 1.1 TEACHING OBJECTIVES: ..................................................................................................................... -
Public Goods for Economic Development
Printed in Austria Sales No. E.08.II.B36 V.08-57150—November 2008—1,000 ISBN 978-92-1-106444-5 Public goods for economic development PUBLIC GOODS FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT FOR ECONOMIC GOODS PUBLIC This publication addresses factors that promote or inhibit successful provision of the four key international public goods: fi nancial stability, international trade regime, international diffusion of technological knowledge and global environment. Each of these public goods presents global challenges and potential remedies to promote economic development. Without these goods, developing countries are unable to compete, prosper or attract capital from abroad. The undersupply of these goods may affect prospects for economic development, threatening global economic stability, peace and prosperity. The need for public goods provision is also recognized by the Millennium Development Goals, internationally agreed goals and targets for knowledge, health, governance and environmental public goods. Because of the characteristics of public goods, leaving their provision to market forces will result in their under provision with respect to socially desirable levels. Coordinated social actions are therefore necessary to mobilize collective response in line with socially desirable objectives and with areas of comparative advantage and value added. International public goods for development will grow in importance over the coming decades as globalization intensifi es. Corrective policies hinge on the goods’ properties. There is no single prescription; rather, different kinds of international public goods require different kinds of policies and institutional arrangements. The Report addresses the nature of these policies and institutions using the modern principles of collective action. UNITED NATIONS INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATION Vienna International Centre, P.O. -
API-119: Advanced Macroeconomics for the Open Economy I, Fall 2020
Sep 1, 2020 API-119: Advanced Macroeconomics for the Open Economy I, Fall 2020 Harvard Kennedy School Course Syllabus: prospectus, outline/schedule and readings Staff: Professor: Jeffrey Frankel [email protected] Faculty Assistant: Minoo Ghoreishi [email protected] Teaching Fellow: Can Soylu Course Assistants: Julio Flores, Alberto Huitron & Yi Yang. Email address to send all questions for the teaching team: [email protected]. Times: Lectures: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:30-11:45 a.m. EST.1 Review Sessions: Tuesdays, 12:30-1:30 pm; Fridays, 1:30-2:30 pm EST.2 Final exam: Friday, Dec. 11, 8:00-11:00 am EST. Prospectus Course Description: This course is the first in the two-course sequence on Macroeconomic Policy in the MPA/ID program. It particularly emphasiZes the international dimension. The general perspective is that of developing countries and other small open economies, defined as those for whom world income, world inflation and world interest rates can be taken as given, and possibly the terms of trade as well. The focus is on monetary, fiscal, and exchange rate policy, and on the determination of the current account balance, national income, and inflation. Models of devaluation include one that focuses on the price of internationally traded goods relative to non-traded goods. A theme is the implications of increased integration of global financial markets. Another is countries’ choice of monetary regime, especially the degree of exchange rate flexibility. Applications include Emerging Market crises and problems of commodity-exporting countries. (Such topics as exchange rate overshooting, speculative attacks, portfolio diversification and debt crises will be covered in the first half of Macro II in February-March.) Nature of the approach: The course is largely built around analytical models. -
Economist Series, GS-0110 TS-54 December 1964, TS-45 April 1963
Economist Series, GS-0110 TS-54 December 1964, TS-45 April 1963 Position Classification Standard for Economist Series, GS-0110 Table of Contents SERIES DEFINITION.................................................................................................................................... 2 GENERAL STATEMENT.............................................................................................................................. 2 SPECIALIZATION AND TITLING PATTERN .............................................................................................. 5 SUPERVISORY POSITIONS...................................................................................................................... 13 FUNCTIONAL PATTERNS AND GRADE-LEVEL DISTINCTIONS .......................................................... 13 ECONOMIST, GS-0110-05..................................................................................................................... 15 ECONOMIST, GS-0110-07..................................................................................................................... 16 ECONOMIST, GS-0110-09..................................................................................................................... 17 ECONOMIST, GS-0110-11..................................................................................................................... 18 ECONOMIST, GS-0110-12..................................................................................................................... 20 ECONOMIST, GS-0110-13.................................................................................................................... -
Tomasz Koźluk Counsellor to the OECD Chief Economist
Tomasz Koźluk Counsellor to the OECD Chief Economist Contact information [email protected] Education PhD, European University Institute, Florence, 2007 MA, International Economics, Sussex University, 2002 MA, Economics Department, Warsaw University, 2002 Professional experience 2021-present Counsellor to the OECD Chief Economist 2012-2017 Senior Economist, Head of Green Growth Workstream, joint Economics Department & Environment Directorate, OECD Chair of Research Committee on Metrics and Indicators, Green Growth, Green Growth Knowledge Platform 2007-2011 Economist, Economics Department , OECD Structural Policy Analysis Division, Macroeconomic Analysis Division and Country Studies Branch 2004-2007 Researcher, Bank of Finland Institute for Economies in Transition; European Central Bank (Financial Research); European Investment Bank (Economic and Financial Studies); CASE; Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, EUI Selected publications and working papers Empirical projects linking environmental policies and economic outcomes (http://oe.cd/eps) "Environmental policies and productivity growth: Evidence across industries and firms," (2017), Journal of Environmental Economics and Management vol. 81, (with V. Zipperer and S. Albrizio) “Environmental Policies and Productivity Growth – A Critical Review of Empirical Findings”, (2014), OECD Journal: Economic Studies, OECD Publishing, vol. 2014(1), (with V. Zipperer) “Effects of vintage-differentiated environmental regulations - evidence from survival analysis of coal-fired power plants”, -
Course Syllabus ECN101G
Course Syllabus ECN101G - Introduction to Economics Number of ECTS credits: 6 Time and Place: Tuesday, 10:00-11:30 at VeCo 3 Thursday, 10:00-11:30 at VeCo 3 Contact Details for Professor Name of Professor: Abdel. Bitat, Assistant Professor E-mail: [email protected] Office hours: Monday, 15:00-16:00 and Friday, 15:00-16:00 (Students who are unable to come during these hours are encouraged to make an appointment.) Office Location: -1.63C CONTENT OVERVIEW Syllabus Section Page Course Prerequisites and Course Description 2 Course Learning Objectives 2 Overview Table: Link between MLO, CLO, Teaching Methods, 3-4 Assignments and Feedback Main Course Material 5 Workload Calculation for this Course 6 Course Assessment: Assignments Overview and Grading Scale 7 Description of Assignments, Activities and Deadlines 8 Rubrics: Transparent Criteria for Assessment 11 Policies for Attendance, Later Work, Academic Honesty, Turnitin 12 Course Schedule – Overview Table 13 Detailed Session-by-Session Description of Course 14 Course Prerequisites (if any) There are no pre-requisites for the course. However, since economics is mathematically intensive, it is worth reviewing secondary school mathematics for a good mastering of the course. A great source which starts with the basics and is available at the VUB library is Simon, C., & Blume, L. (1994). Mathematics for economists. New York: Norton. Course Description The course illustrates the way in which economists view the world. You will learn about basic tools of micro- and macroeconomic analysis and, by applying them, you will understand the behavior of households, firms and government. Problems include: trade and specialization; the operation of markets; industrial structure and economic welfare; the determination of aggregate output and price level; fiscal and monetary policy and foreign exchange rates. -
Institutions and Economics of Water Scarcity and Droughts
water Editorial Institutions and Economics of Water Scarcity and Droughts Julio Berbel 1 , Nazaret M. Montilla-López 1,* and Giacomo Giannoccaro 2 1 WEARE–Water, Environmental and Agricultural Resources Economics Research Group, Department of Agricultural Economics, Universidad de Córdoba, Campus Rabanales, Ctra. N-IV km 396, E-14014 Córdoba, Spain; [email protected] 2 Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, 70126 Bari, Italy; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] Received: 9 November 2020; Accepted: 17 November 2020; Published: 19 November 2020 1. Introduction Integrated water resources management seeks an efficient blend of all water resources (e.g., fresh surface water, groundwater, reused water, desalinated water) to meet the demands of the full range of water users (e.g., agriculture, municipalities, industry, and e-flows). Water scarcity and droughts already affect many regions of the world and are expected to increase due to climate change and economic growth. In this Special Issue, 10 peer-reviewed articles have been published that address the questions regarding the economic effects of water scarcity and droughts, management instruments, such as water pricing, water markets, technologies and user-based reallocation, and the strategies to enhance resiliency, adaptation to scarcity and droughts. There is a need to improve the operation of institutions in charge of the allocation and re-allocation of resources when temporal (drought) or structural over-allocation arises. Water scarcity, droughts and pollution have increased notably in recent decades. A drought is a temporary climatic effect or natural disaster that can occur anywhere and can be short or prolonged. -
What Impact Does Scarcity Have on the Production, Distribution, and Consumption of Goods and Services?
Curriculum: 2009 Pequea Valley SD Curriculum PEQUEA VALLEY SD Course: Social Studies 12 Date: May 25, 2010 ET Topic: Foundations of Economics Days: 10 Subject(s): Grade(s): Key Learning: The exchange of goods and services provides choices through which people can fill their basic needs and wants. Unit Essential Question(s): What impact does scarcity have on the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services? Concept: Concept: Concept: Scarcity Factors of Production Opportunity Cost 6.2.12.A, 6.5.12.D, 6.5.12.F 6.3.12.E 6.3.12.E, 6.3.12.B Lesson Essential Question(s): Lesson Essential Question(s): Lesson Essential Question(s): What is the problem of scarcity? (A) What are the four factors of production? (A) How does opportunity cost affect my life? (A) (A) What role do you play in the circular flow of economic activity? (ET) What choices do I make in my individual spending habits and what are the opportunity costs? (ET) Vocabulary: Vocabulary: Vocabulary: scarcity, economics, need, want, land, labor, capital, entrepreneurship, factor trade-offs, opportunity cost, production markets, product markets, economic growth possibility frontier, economic models, cost benefit analysis Concept: Concept: Concept: Economic Systems Economic and Social Goals Free Enterprise 6.1.12.A, 6.2.12.A 6.2.12.I, 6.2.12.A, 6.2.12.B, 6.1.12.A, 6.4.12.B 6.2.12.I Lesson Essential Question(s): Lesson Essential Question(s): Lesson Essential Question(s): Which ecoomic system offers you the most What is the most and least important of the To what extent -
The Third Great Wave
SPECIAL REPORT THE WORLD ECONOMY October 4th 2014 The third great wave 20141004_SR_WorldEcon.indd 1 23/09/2014 14:30 SPECIAL REPORT THE WORLD ECONOMY The third great wave The first two industrial revolutions inflicted plenty of pain but ultimately benefited everyone. The digital one may prove far more divisive, argues Ryan Avent MOST PEOPLE ARE discomfited by radical change, and often for good CONTENTS reason. Both the first Industrial Revolution, starting in the late 18th cen- 3 Productivity tury, and the second one, around 100 years later, had their victims who Technology isn’t lost their jobs to Cartwright’s power loom and later to Edison’s electric working lighting, Benz’s horseless carriage and countless other inventions that changed the world. But those inventions also immeasurably improved 5 The privileged few many people’s lives, sweeping away old economic structures and trans- To those that have forming society. They created new economic opportunity on a mass shall be given scale, with plenty ofnew workto replace the old. 6 Housing A third great wave of invention and economic disruption, set off by Home economics advances in computing and information and communication technol- ogy (ICT) in the late 20th century, promises to deliver a similar mixture of 8 Emerging economies social stress and economic transformation. It is driven by a handful of Arrested development technologies—including machine intelligence, the ubiquitous web and 10 New opportunities advanced robotics—capable ofdeliveringmany remarkable innovations: Silver lining unmanned vehicles; pilotless drones; machines that can instantly trans- late hundreds of languages; mobile technology that eliminates the dis- 12 Easing the transition tance between doctorand patient, teacherand student. -
Hyperinflation in Venezuela
POLICY BRIEF recovery can be possible without first stabilizing the explo- 19-13 Hyperinflation sive price level. Doing so will require changing the country’s fiscal and monetary regimes. in Venezuela: A Since late 2018, authorities have been trying to control the price spiral by cutting back on fiscal expenditures, contracting Stabilization domestic credit, and implementing new exchange rate poli- cies. As a result, inflation initially receded from its extreme Handbook levels, albeit to a very high and potentially unstable 30 percent a month. But independent estimates suggest that prices went Gonzalo Huertas out of control again in mid-July 2019, reaching weekly rates September 2019 of 10 percent, placing the economy back in hyperinflation territory. Instability was also reflected in the premium on Gonzalo Huertas was research analyst at the Peterson Institute foreign currency in the black market, which also increased for International Economics. He worked with C. Fred Bergsten in July after a period of relative calm in previous months. Senior Fellow Olivier Blanchard on macroeconomic theory This Policy Brief describes a feasible stabilization plan and policy. Before joining the Institute, Huertas worked as a researcher at Harvard University for President Emeritus and for Venezuela’s extreme inflation. It places the country’s Charles W. Eliot Professor Lawrence H. Summers, producing problems in context by outlining the economics behind work on fiscal policy, and for Minos A. Zombanakis Professor Carmen Reinhart, focusing on exchange rate interventions. hyperinflations: how they develop, how they disrupt the normal functioning of economies, and how other countries Author’s Note: I am grateful to Adam Posen, Olivier Blanchard, across history have designed policies to overcome them. -
Globalization and Scarcity Multilateralism for a World with Limits
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY CENTER ON INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION Globalization and Scarcity Multilateralism for a world with limits Alex Evans November 2010 NEW YORK UNIVERSITY CENTER ON INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION The world faces old and new security challenges that are more complex than our multilateral and national institutions are currently capable of managing. International cooperation is ever more necessary in meeting these challenges. The NYU Center on International Cooperation (CIC) works to enhance international responses to conflict, insecurity, and scarcity through applied research and direct engagement with multilateral institutions and the wider policy community. CIC’s programs and research activities span the spectrum of conflict insecurity, and scarcity issues. This allows us to see critical inter-connections and highlight the coherence often necessary for effective response. We have a particular concentration on the UN and multilateral responses to conflict. Table of Contents Globalization and Scarcity | Multilateralism for a world with limits Acknowledgements 2 List of abbreviations 3 Executive Summary 5 Part 1: Into a World of Scarcity 10 Scarcity Issues: An Overview 10 Why See Scarcity Issues as a Set? 17 Part 2: Scarcity and Multilateralism 22 Development and Fragile States 22 Finance and Investment 28 International Trade 36 Strategic Resource Competition 41 Conclusion 47 Endnotes 48 Bibliography 52 Acknowledgements This project would not have been possible without the generous financial assistance of the Government of Denmark, whose support is gratefully acknowledged. Alex would like to offer his sincere thanks to the Steering Group for the Center on International Cooperation’s program on Resource Scarcity, Climate Change and Multilateralism: the governments of Brazil, Denmark, Mexico and Norway; and William Antholis, David Bloom, Mathew J.