Integrating Nature and Knowledge Into Economics
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A Study of Paul A. Samuelson's Economics
Copyright is owned by the Author of the thesis. Permission is given for a copy to be downloaded by an individual for the purpose of research and private study only. The thesis may not be reproduced elsewhere without the permission of the Author. A Study of Paul A. Samuelson's Econol11ics: Making Economics Accessible to Students A thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Economics at Massey University Palmerston North, New Zealand. Leanne Marie Smith July 2000 Abstract Paul A. Samuelson is the founder of the modem introductory economics textbook. His textbook Economics has become a classic, and the yardstick of introductory economics textbooks. What is said to distinguish economics from the other social sciences is the development of a textbook tradition. The textbook presents the fundamental paradigms of the discipline, these gradually evolve over time as puzzles emerge, and solutions are found or suggested. The textbook is central to the dissemination of the principles of a discipline. Economics has, and does contribute to the education of students, and advances economic literacy and understanding in society. It provided a common economic language for students. Systematic analysis and research into introductory textbooks is relatively recent. The contribution that textbooks play in portraying a discipline and its evolution has been undervalued and under-researched. Specifically, applying bibliographical and textual analysis to textbook writing in economics, examining a single introductory economics textbook and its successive editions through time is new. When it is considered that an economics textbook is more than a disseminator of information, but a physical object with specific content, presented in a particular way, it changes the way a researcher looks at that textbook. -
A Nobelist on Government's Role, the Power of Ideas, and How To
A Nobelist on government’s role, the power of ideas, and how to measure progress: An interview with Paul Romer “Ideas mean that we can have sustained economic growth, and we will not only have more stuff but be better people.” September 2019 Inequality is rising within developed economies, Protecting the ship and net incomes are flat or falling as well. But GDP per capita is steadily rising in these countries at A colleague of mine has a daughter who’s in the the same time. Are we measuring the wrong metric navy. And she told me that one of the things they when it comes to progress? say, at least if you’re the commander of a ship, is that you tell everybody on the ship that your In this interview with McKinsey’s Rik Kirkland, priorities are the ship, your shipmates, and yourself. the Nobel Prize-winning economist suggests an So, ship, shipmate, self. alternative measurement to GDP per capita and talks about how innovations, the market, and Part of the insight of economics is that if you governments work together to create progress structure things appropriately, self-interest for everybody. (which is always there) can lead to good outcomes. What we haven’t done effectively How ideas sustain growth enough is talk about protecting the ship. How do we protect the ship and commit together to build I worked on the specifics of how technology the values and systems that protect the nation? leads to economic growth. And I think it’s very How do we make sure everybody feels like they important with a term like growth that you have are protected and they’re part of this process of some idea of a metric. -
Rolling the DICE: William Nordhaus's Dubious Case for a Carbon
SUBSCRIBE NOW AND RECEIVE CRISIS AND LEVIATHAN* FREE! “The Independent Review does not accept “The Independent Review is pronouncements of government officials nor the excellent.” conventional wisdom at face value.” —GARY BECKER, Noble Laureate —JOHN R. MACARTHUR, Publisher, Harper’s in Economic Sciences Subscribe to The Independent Review and receive a free book of your choice* such as the 25th Anniversary Edition of Crisis and Leviathan: Critical Episodes in the Growth of American Government, by Founding Editor Robert Higgs. This quarterly journal, guided by co-editors Christopher J. Coyne, and Michael C. Munger, and Robert M. Whaples offers leading-edge insights on today’s most critical issues in economics, healthcare, education, law, history, political science, philosophy, and sociology. Thought-provoking and educational, The Independent Review is blazing the way toward informed debate! Student? Educator? Journalist? Business or civic leader? Engaged citizen? This journal is for YOU! *Order today for more FREE book options Perfect for students or anyone on the go! The Independent Review is available on mobile devices or tablets: iOS devices, Amazon Kindle Fire, or Android through Magzter. INDEPENDENT INSTITUTE, 100 SWAN WAY, OAKLAND, CA 94621 • 800-927-8733 • [email protected] PROMO CODE IRA1703 Rolling the DICE William Nordhaus’s Dubious Case for a Carbon Tax F ROBERT P. M URPHY he 2007 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) underscores the public’s growing aware- T ness of and concern about anthropogenic (man-made) global warming. Many climatologists and other relevant scientists claim that emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from human activity will lead to increases in the earth’s temperature, which in turn will spell potentially catastrophic hardship for future generations. -
After the Phillips Curve: Persistence of High Inflation and High Unemployment
Conference Series No. 19 BAILY BOSWORTH FAIR FRIEDMAN HELLIWELL KLEIN LUCAS-SARGENT MC NEES MODIGLIANI MOORE MORRIS POOLE SOLOW WACHTER-WACHTER % FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF BOSTON AFTER THE PHILLIPS CURVE: PERSISTENCE OF HIGH INFLATION AND HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT Proceedings of a Conference Held at Edgartown, Massachusetts June 1978 Sponsored by THE FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF BOSTON THE FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF BOSTON CONFERENCE SERIES NO. 1 CONTROLLING MONETARY AGGREGATES JUNE, 1969 NO. 2 THE INTERNATIONAL ADJUSTMENT MECHANISM OCTOBER, 1969 NO. 3 FINANCING STATE and LOCAL GOVERNMENTS in the SEVENTIES JUNE, 1970 NO. 4 HOUSING and MONETARY POLICY OCTOBER, 1970 NO. 5 CONSUMER SPENDING and MONETARY POLICY: THE LINKAGES JUNE, 1971 NO. 6 CANADIAN-UNITED STATES FINANCIAL RELATIONSHIPS SEPTEMBER, 1971 NO. 7 FINANCING PUBLIC SCHOOLS JANUARY, 1972 NO. 8 POLICIES for a MORE COMPETITIVE FINANCIAL SYSTEM JUNE, 1972 NO. 9 CONTROLLING MONETARY AGGREGATES II: the IMPLEMENTATION SEPTEMBER, 1972 NO. 10 ISSUES .in FEDERAL DEBT MANAGEMENT JUNE 1973 NO. 11 CREDIT ALLOCATION TECHNIQUES and MONETARY POLICY SEPBEMBER 1973 NO. 12 INTERNATIONAL ASPECTS of STABILIZATION POLICIES JUNE 1974 NO. 13 THE ECONOMICS of a NATIONAL ELECTRONIC FUNDS TRANSFER SYSTEM OCTOBER 1974 NO. 14 NEW MORTGAGE DESIGNS for an INFLATIONARY ENVIRONMENT JANUARY 1975 NO. 15 NEW ENGLAND and the ENERGY CRISIS OCTOBER 1975 NO. 16 FUNDING PENSIONS: ISSUES and IMPLICATIONS for FINANCIAL MARKETS OCTOBER 1976 NO. 17 MINORITY BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT NOVEMBER, 1976 NO. 18 KEY ISSUES in INTERNATIONAL BANKING OCTOBER, 1977 CONTENTS Opening Remarks FRANK E. MORRIS 7 I. Documenting the Problem 9 Diagnosing the Problem of Inflation and Unemployment in the Western World GEOFFREY H. -
The 2018 Prize in Economic Sciences
PRESS RELEASE 8 October 2018 The Prize in Economic Sciences 2018 The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2018 to William D. Nordhaus Paul M. Romer Yale University, New Haven, USA NYU Stern School of Business, New York, USA “for integrating climate change into “for integrating technological innovations into long-run macroeconomic analysis” long-run macroeconomic analysis” Integrating innovation and climate with economic growth William D. Nordhaus and Paul M. Romer have Climate change – Nordhaus’ fndings deal with interac- designed methods for addressing some of our tions between society and nature. Nordhaus decided to time’s most basic and pressing questions about work on this topic in the 1970s, as scientists had become how we create long-term sustained and sustainable increasingly worried about the combustion of fossil economic growth. fuel resulting in a warmer climate. In the mid-1990s, he became the frst person to create an integrated assessment At its heart, economics deals with the management of model, i.e. a quantitative model that describes the global scarce resources. Nature dictates the main constraints on interplay between the economy and the climate. His economic growth and our knowledge determines how model integrates theories and empirical results from well we deal with these constraints. This year’s Laureates physics, chemistry and economics. Nordhaus’ model is William Nordhaus and Paul Romer have signifcantly now widely spread and is used to simulate how the eco- broadened the scope of economic analysis by constructing nomy and the climate co-evolve. -
Redefining the Role of the State: Joseph Stiglitz on Building A
Redefining the Role of the State Joseph Stiglitz on building a ‘post-Washington consensus’ An interview with introduction by Brian Snowdon ‘Economic ideas—knowledge about economics—have had a profound effect on the lives of billions of people, making it absolutely essential that we do our best to try and understand the scientific basis of our theories and evidence…In practice, however, there are often large differences in the understanding of or about economic issues. The purpose of economic science is to narrow these dif- ferences by subjecting the positions and beliefs to rigorous analysis, statistical tests, and vigorous debate’. (Joseph Stiglitz, 1998a) Introduction Joseph Stiglitz is a remarkably productive economist and is internation- ally recognised as one of the world’s leading thinkers. To date, in his 35- year career as a professional economist (1966–2001), Professor Stiglitz has published well over three hundred papers in academic journals, con- ference proceedings and edited volumes. He is also the author and edi- tor of numerous books. In 1966, having completed his PhD at MIT, he embarked on an academic career during which he has taught and con- ducted research at many of the world’s most prestigious universities including MIT, Yale, Oxford, Princeton and Stanford. In 1979 he was awarded the prestigious John Bates Clark Medal from the American Economic Association, an award given to the most distinguished economist under the age of forty. From 1993–97 Professor Stiglitz was a member of the US President’s Council of Economic Advisors, becoming Chair of the CEA in June 1995. From February 1997 until his Joseph Stiglitz is currently (since July 2001) Professor of Economics, Business and International Affairs at Columbia University, New York. -
The Perils of Complacency
THE PERILS OF COMPLACENCYTHE PERILS : America at a Tipping Point in Science & Engineering : America at a Tipping Point THE PERILS OF COMPLACENCY America at a Tipping Point in Science & Engineering An Update to Restoring the Foundation: The Vital Role of Research in Preserving the American Dream AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS & SCIENCES AMERICAN ACADEMY THE PERILS OF COMPLACENCY America at a Tipping Point in Science & Engineering An Update to Restoring the Foundation: The Vital Role of Research in Preserving the American Dream american academy of arts & sciences Cambridge, Massachusetts This report and its supporting data were finalized in April 2020. While some new data have been released since then, the report’s findings and recommendations remain valid. Please note that Figure 1 was based on nsf analysis, which used existing oecd purchasing power parity (ppp) to convert U.S. and Chinese financial data.oecd adjusted its ppp factors in May 2020. The new factors for China affect the curves in the figure, pushing the China-U.S. crossing point toward the end of the decade. This development is addressed in Appendix D. © 2020 by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences All rights reserved. isbn: 0- 87724- 134- 1 This publication is available online at www.amacad.org/publication/perils-of-complacency. The views expressed in this report are those held by the contributors and are not necessarily those of the Officers and Members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Please direct inquiries to: American Academy of Arts and Sciences 136 Irving Street Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138- 1996 Telephone: 617- 576- 5000 Email: [email protected] Website: www.amacad.org Contents Acknowledgments 5 Committee on New Models for U.S. -
5 Theories of Endogenous Growth
Economics 314 Coursebook, 2012 Jeffrey Parker 5 THEORIES OF ENDOGENOUS GROWTH Chapter 5 Contents A. Topics and Tools ............................................................................. 1 B. The Microeconomics of Innovation and Human Capital Investment ........... 3 Returns to research and development .............................................................................. 4 Human capital vs. knowledge capital ............................................................................. 6 Returns to education ..................................................................................................... 6 C. Understanding Romer’s Chapter 3 ....................................................... 9 Introduction .................................................................................................................9 The textbook’s modeling strategy and the research literature ............................................. 9 The basic setup of the R&D model ............................................................................... 10 The knowledge production function .............................................................................. 11 Analysis of the model without capital ........................................................................... 12 The R&D model with capital ...................................................................................... 16 Returns to scale and endogenous growth ....................................................................... 17 Scale effects in -
Paul Samuelson and Global Public Goods
Paul Samuelson and Global Public Goods William D. Nordhaus Yale University1 May 5, 2005 A commemorative essay for Paul Samuelson ________________________________________________________ It is both easy and hard to write an essay commemorating Paul Samuelson’s contributions to economics. Easy, because he has created so much of modern economics that you could write on virtually anything – stabilization policy, economic growth, international trade, welfare economics, or just about any topic that caught your fancy. Hard, because, like Buridan’s ass, you could easily procrastinate forever in deciding which of the many treasures of his ideas to draw from. In the end, I chose to draw from Paul’s writings on public goods. In two and one-half pages, he reshaped the way economists and political philosophers think about the distinction between private goods and public goods.2 Once those concepts are learned, we can never again forget why the allocational questions for bread are fundamentally different from those of lighthouses. I will focus on an important example of this topic, and one that poses particularly thorny practical 1 The author is Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University. 2 Paul Samuelson, “The Pure Theory of Public Expenditure,” The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 36, No. 4, Nov. 1954, pp. 387-389. - 1 - issues, which is the case of global public goods. A brief intellectual history of the concepts is appended. What great blessings or scourges have befallen humanity? Consider issues as disparate as greenhouse warming and ozone depletion, the Internet and William Shakespeare, terrorism and money laundering, the discovery of antibiotics and nuclear proliferation. -
Persistence of High Inflation and High Unemployment
Conference Series No. 19 BAILY BOSWORTH FAIR FRIEDMAN HELLIWELL KLEIN LUCAS-SARGENT MC NEES MODIGLIANI MOORE MORRIS POOLE SOLOW WACHTER-WACHTER % FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF BOSTON AFTER THE PHILLIPS CURVE: PERSISTENCE OF HIGH INFLATION AND HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT Proceedings of a Conference Held at Edgartown, Massachusetts June 1978 Sponsored by THE FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF BOSTON THE FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF BOSTON CONFERENCE SERIES NO. 1 CONTROLLING MONETARY AGGREGATES JUNE, 1969 NO. 2 THE INTERNATIONAL ADJUSTMENT MECHANISM OCTOBER, 1969 NO. 3 FINANCING STATE and LOCAL GOVERNMENTS in the SEVENTIES JUNE, 1970 NO. 4 HOUSING and MONETARY POLICY OCTOBER, 1970 NO. 5 CONSUMER SPENDING and MONETARY POLICY: THE LINKAGES JUNE, 1971 NO. 6 CANADIAN-UNITED STATES FINANCIAL RELATIONSHIPS SEPTEMBER, 1971 NO. 7 FINANCING PUBLIC SCHOOLS JANUARY, 1972 NO. 8 POLICIES for a MORE COMPETITIVE FINANCIAL SYSTEM JUNE, 1972 NO. 9 CONTROLLING MONETARY AGGREGATES II: the IMPLEMENTATION SEPTEMBER, 1972 NO. 10 ISSUES .in FEDERAL DEBT MANAGEMENT JUNE 1973 NO. 11 CREDIT ALLOCATION TECHNIQUES and MONETARY POLICY SEPBEMBER 1973 NO. 12 INTERNATIONAL ASPECTS of STABILIZATION POLICIES JUNE 1974 NO. 13 THE ECONOMICS of a NATIONAL ELECTRONIC FUNDS TRANSFER SYSTEM OCTOBER 1974 NO. 14 NEW MORTGAGE DESIGNS for an INFLATIONARY ENVIRONMENT JANUARY 1975 NO. 15 NEW ENGLAND and the ENERGY CRISIS OCTOBER 1975 NO. 16 FUNDING PENSIONS: ISSUES and IMPLICATIONS for FINANCIAL MARKETS OCTOBER 1976 NO. 17 MINORITY BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT NOVEMBER, 1976 NO. 18 KEY ISSUES in INTERNATIONAL BANKING OCTOBER, 1977 CONTENTS Opening Remarks FRANK E. MORRIS 7 I. Documenting the Problem 9 Diagnosing the Problem of Inflation and Unemployment in the Western World GEOFFREY H. -
The Role of Models and Probabilities in the Monetary Policy Process
1017-01 BPEA/Sims 12/30/02 14:48 Page 1 CHRISTOPHER A. SIMS Princeton University The Role of Models and Probabilities in the Monetary Policy Process This is a paper on the way data relate to decisionmaking in central banks. One component of the paper is based on a series of interviews with staff members and a few policy committee members of four central banks: the Swedish Riksbank, the European Central Bank (ECB), the Bank of England, and the U.S. Federal Reserve. These interviews focused on the policy process and sought to determine how forecasts were made, how uncertainty was characterized and handled, and what role formal economic models played in the process at each central bank. In each of the four central banks, “subjective” forecasting, based on data analysis by sectoral “experts,” plays an important role. At the Federal Reserve, a seventeen-year record of model-based forecasts can be com- pared with a longer record of subjective forecasts, and a second compo- nent of this paper is an analysis of these records. Two of the central banks—the Riksbank and the Bank of England— have explicit inflation-targeting policies that require them to set quantita- tive targets for inflation and to publish, several times a year, their forecasts of inflation. A third component of the paper discusses the effects of such a policy regime on the policy process and on the role of models within it. The large models in use in central banks today grew out of a first generation of large models that were thought to be founded on the statisti- cal theory of simultaneous-equations models. -
Political Business Cycles 40 Years After Nordhaus Eric Dubois
Political Business Cycles 40 Years after Nordhaus Eric Dubois To cite this version: Eric Dubois. Political Business Cycles 40 Years after Nordhaus. Public Choice, Springer Verlag, 2016, 166 (1-2), pp.235-259. 10.1007/s11127-016-0313-z. hal-01291401 HAL Id: hal-01291401 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01291401 Submitted on 21 Mar 2016 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Political Business Cycles 40 Years after Nordhaus Eric Dubois1 Abstract: The aim of this article is to survey the huge literature that has emerged in the last four decades following Nordhaus’s (1975) publication on political business cycles (PBCs). I first propose some developments in history of thought to examine the context in which this ground-breaking contribution saw the light of the day. I also present a simplified version of Nordhaus’s model to highlight his key results. I detail some early critiques of this model and the fields of investigations to which they gave birth. I then focus on the institutional context and examine its influence on political business cycles, the actual research agenda. Finally, I derive some paths for future research.