Economic Theory Commons^™

Radio Spectrum And The Disruptive Clarity Of Ronald Coase, Thomas W. Hazlett, David Porter, Vernon Smith

ESI Working Papers

In the Federal Communications Commission, Ronald Coase exposed deep foundations via normative argument buttressed by astute historical observation. The government controlled scarce frequencies, issuing sharply limited use rights. Spillovers were said to be otherwise endemic. Coase saw that Government limited conflicts by restricting uses; property owners perform an analogous function via the “price system.” The government solution was inefficient unless the net benefits of the alternative property regime were lower. Coase augured that the price system would outperform. His spectrum auction proposal was mocked by communications policy experts, opposed by industry interests, and ridiculed by policy makers. Hence, it took …

Why Brazil Has Not Grown: A Comparative Analysis Of Brazilian, Indian, And Chinese Economic Management, Fernando Ferrari-Filho, Anthony Petros Spanakos

Department of Political Science and Law Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This paper does not aim to dispute that Brazil would benefit from reforms in any or all of these areas. Rather, the paper offers a skeptical perspective on reform menus and proposes an alternative explanation for the faster growth of Brazil’s peers India and China2. The paper begins by introducing (section 1) the idea of the BRICs countries, to establish the basis for comparisons of most similar cases. It then surveys the results of a generation of Washington Consensus era growth (section 2). Although there is a considerable amount of divergence over what causes growth, it seems that something approaching …

Regional Electricity In The United States, Sergio Luis Contreras

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Elasticity coefficients are estimated for the different regions in the United States. Residential, commercial, industrial, and the nonprofit sectors are examined. Demographic, climatic, and regional variables are used to estimate electricity demand. The negative income estimator that appears when paired with the number of households estimator implies that residential electricity is an inferior good. Even though it is a substitute good, natural gas does not show any significance for any sectors in the economy.

[Introduction To] The Street Porter And The Philosopher : Conversations On Analytical Egalitarianism, Sandra J. Peart, David M. Levy

Bookshelf

Adam Smith, asserting the common humanity of the street porter and the philosopher, articulated the classical economists' model of social interactions as exchanges among equals. This model had largely fallen out of favor until, recently, a number of scholars in the avant-garde of economic thought rediscovered it and rechristened it "analytical egalitarianism." In this volume, Sandra J. Peart and David M. Levy bring together an impressive array of authors to explore the ramifications of this analytical ideal and to discuss the ways in which an egalitarian theory of individuality can enable economists to reconcile ideas from opposite ends of the …

The Ethical Lacunae In Friedman's Concept Of The Manager, Jonathan B. Wight, Martin Calkins

Economics Faculty Publications

This article challenges along two lines Milton Friedman's injunction that the sole role of the business manager is to maximize profits for shareholders using all legal and ethical means. First, it shows how Friedman overly narrows the manager's moral duties to consequentialist profit maximization and thereby fails to account for a wide range of values and virtues necessary for good management. Second, it illustrates how more oblique approaches to management as well as Adam Smith's virtue-based model better capture the moral imagination and relational aspects of leadership that are critical to good management today. In the end, this article suggests …

Rationality In Economics: Constructivist And Ecological Forms, Vernon L. Smith

ESI Publications

Chapter 1: Rediscovering the Scottish Philosophers

Adam Smith And Poverty, Jonathan B. Wight

English Faculty Publications

Can we end poverty in America? Does economic theory offer a solution? Humility would be a good starting place, because systemic problems like generational poverty rarely stem from single causes. Putting the broken pieces together is difficult when some edges are sharp, some are shattered, and others missing. This essay draws on insights from Adam Smith in order to examine the problem of poverty. It focuses on a case study involving Serena Robins (the real names have been altered).

Counterfeiting Truth: Statistical Reporting On The Basis Of Trust, Sandra J. Peart, David M. Levy

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

There are two parts of our chapter. First, we review Adam Smith's argument that the evolution of monetary institutions is tied up in the problem of detecting deceitful metal offered in exchange. Smith points to no such comparable institution by which deceitful policy advocacy is detected and severely punished.⁵ Yet his recommendation for caution in the evaluation of policy advocacy points to the caution that routinely prevailed in monetary matters before public safeguards evolved to make the metallic content of the medium of exchange transparent and to preserve its quality. Second, we tum to a different sort of deceit, …

Aaron Peron Ogletree On A Brief History Of Neoliberalism By David Harvey. Oxford, Uk: Oxford University Press, 2005. 256 Pp., Aaron Peron Ogletree

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

A Brief History of Neoliberalism by David Harvey. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2005. 256 pp.

Teaching The Ethical Foundations Of Economics: The Principles Course, Jonathan B. Wight

Economics Faculty Publications

When we analyze the source of humor, one ingredient is surely incongruity, the juxtaposition of opposites. So when Tom Lehrer, the consummate Harvard mathematician, openly calls for plagiarism, this is funny because it is exactly the opposite of what we expect - it is absurd. And yet, from the viewpoint of modern economics, is plagiarism really so absurd? We teach our students to maximize short-term profits (in a moral vacuum). We drill them that producers minimize private costs of production (without reference to ethical codes of conduct). We expect economic agents to operate with atomistic selfishness, assuring them that this …

(Review) Self-Interest Before Adam Smith: A Genealogy Of Economic Science, Spencer J. Pack

Economics Faculty Publications

Pierre Force, Self-Interest Before Adam Smith: A Genealogy of Economic Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. ix, 279, $65.00. ISBN 0-521 83060-5.

Auction Markets For Evaluations, Cary Deck, Bart J. Wilson

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

When the value of a product or service is uncertain, outcomes can be inefficient. A market for evaluations can theoretically increase efficiency by voluntarily eliciting an evaluation that would otherwise not be provided. This paper uses a controlled laboratory experiment to test the performance of four market mechanisms to provide product evaluations. The mechanisms considered are derived from the oft studied uniform price sealed bid, discriminatory price sealed bid, English clock auction, and Dutch clock auction. Our results indicate for this nonrivalrous product that (i) each of these institutions improves social welfare and (ii) the performances of the four mechanisms …

Adam Smith And Greed, Jonathan B. Wight

Economics Faculty Publications

The virtues of greed have been widely promoted by some economists in the 20th century. Allegedly it is Adam Smith who provides this new dignity to greed (Lerner, 1937, ix). Kenneth Arrow and Frank Hahn in the General Equilibrium Analysis (1971), for example, implicitly assume that Adam Smith's self-interest is the greed that promotes economic efficiency (quoted in Evensky, 1993, 203). Walter Williams (1999), a devoted follower of Smith, writes in his column that, "Free markets, private property rights, voluntary exchange, and greed produce preferable outcomes most times and under most conditions." These pronouncements have become part of the cultural …

Teaching The Ethical Foundations Of Economics, Jonathan B. Wight

Economics Faculty Publications

Some economists consider their discipline a science, and thereby divorced from messy ethical details, the normative passions of right and wrong. They teach in a moral vacuum, perhaps even advocating economic agents' operating independently and avariciously, asserting that this magically produces the greatest good for society.

A Rationale For Meeting Quotas Asymmetrically, J. Patrick Meister, Robert S. Main

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

Under certain conditions, otherwise identical, competing firms may find it jointly preferable to face differing degrees of trade barriers on individual products rather than symmetric trade barriers. The key is the ability to reduce marginal production cost via research and development. The economic significance of this insight is that there could be a role for a market for quota allotments. This insight also has applications to Voluntary Export Restraints in which a priori symmetric, restricted firms may prefer to have individual production levels allocated asymmetrically. This indicates the need for detailed studies of how quotas are met by individual firms. …

Does Free Trade Cause Hunger? Hidden Implications Of The Ftaa, Jonathan B. Wight

Economics Faculty Publications

Voluntary free trade has the potential, slowly and gradually over time, to create "general opulence" because it allows workers to acquire greater competency and specialization: in a word, workers become more productive. The creation of a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) would expand market areas and thereby potentially contribute to raising future living standards of workers. This paper seeks to analyze the theoretical basis for trade, provide an economic overview of FTAA countries, and analyze the winners and losers from trade.

A Little Adam Smith Is A Dangerous Thing, Jonathan B. Wight

Economics Faculty Publications

Adam Smith was trying to counter medieval church theology, which held that any self-interested behavior was sinful and detrimental. Smith countered that self-interest could yield valuable outcomes for society as people pursued specialization and market trade. Much later these quotes would be used to justify the greedy and grasping personae of homo economicus, illustrating how a little Adam Smith can prove to be a dangerous thing. For example, Max Lerner in 1937 would say that Adam Smith "sanctified predatory impulses" and "gave a new dignity to greed." By the 1980s the movie Wall Street has the financial tycoon Gordon …

Economics And Strategic Management: Bridging The Divide, Rakesh Singh

IIMB Management Review

There has always been a great divide between economic theory and management theory. On the one hand, most business schools put basic economics on their curriculum and insist on compulsory courses in the subject.  On the other hand, management theorists have found economics too abstract to be useful. Economists have always tried to run clown the case study approach as lacking in rigour and have criticized management's approach of generality.

Quantity And Quality In Economic Research, Volume Iv (Book Review), Ralph Lim

WCBT Faculty Publications

Book review by Ralph Lim.

Bonitsis, T. D., & Brown, R. C. (Eds.). (1997). Quantity and Quality in Economic Research, Volume IV. Aldershot, England: Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 9781859726822

Cruel, Mean, Or Lavish? Economic Analysis, Price Discrimination And Digital Intellectual Property, James Boyle

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Will The Real Adam Smith Please Stand Up?: Teaching Social Economics In The Principles Course, Jonathan B. Wight

Economics Faculty Publications

Part of the difficulty of introducing social economics into the principles course is the perception that social economics is anathema to mainstream economics. As noted by Warren Samuels, however, "neoclassical economics is already a form of social economics" despite its "pretensions of methodological individualism and value-neutrality". Heilbroner also makes the case that the " ... the preponderance of great economists were aware of economics as explanation systems of particular socio-economic formations." Like it or not, economists err in omitting from their models what McCloskey calls "S" variables--variables representing the "social embeddedness" of values which direct human choices.

How Not To Prevent Oil Crises: Challenge For An Education President, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes several problematic approaches that are components of lay psychology.

Adam Smith On The Virtues: A Partial Resolution Of The Adam Smith Problem, Spencer J. Pack

Economics Faculty Publications

Adam Smith's definition of justice as a moral virtue based on the "passion" of resentment in 'The Theory of Moral Sentiments' (1759), despite seeming contradictions, supports his analysis of an acquisitive, commercial society in 'The Wealth of Nations' (1774) partly by precluding the concept of a just price.

Gatt, Dispute Settlement And Cooperation: A Reply, Dan Kovenock, Marie Thursby

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

In our 1992 paper, we analyzed GATT and its dispute settlement procedure (DSP) in the context of a supergame model of international trade featuring both explicit (GATT) and implicit (non-GATT) agreements. Our paper departed from the previous economics literature on GATT enforcement (see, for instance Hungerford (1991) and Ludema (1990)) by incorporating the ``twin engines of international obligation and retaliation'' (Hudec, 1990). International obligation imposed a cost of violating an explicit international agreement, such as GATT, while retaliation could take place either within the rules stipulated by the international agreement or by punishment outside of the agreement. In Section 2 …

The All-Pay Auction With Complete Information, Michael R. Baye, Dan Kovenock, Casper G. De Vries

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

In a (first price) all-pay auction, bidders simultaneously submit bids for an item. All players forfeit their bids, and the high bidder receives the item. This auction is widely used in economics to model rent seeking, R&D races, political contests, and job promotion tournaments. We fully characterize equilibrium for this class of games, and show that the set of equilibria is much larger than has been recognized in the literature. When there are more than two players, for instance, we show that even when the auction is symmetric there exists a continuum of asymmetric equilibria. Moreover, for economically important configurations …

Slavery, Adam Smith’S Economic Vision And The Invisible Hand, Spencer J. Pack

Economics Faculty Publications

Smith was against slavery on moral and economic grounds. The "invisible hand" in societies which allow slavery, operates in such a way that increases in the wealth of the rich, leads to increased misery for the poor free citizens as well as for the slaves themselves. It seems that the beneficial workings of the "invisible hand" are dependent upon commercial societies which arc not based upon the institution of slavery.

Relaxing Traditional Economic Assumptions And Values: Toward A New Disciplinary Discourse On Law, Kenneth G. Dau-Schmidt

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Economics has been viewed traditionally as a discipline removed from other, "softer", fields of social analysis. Professor R. Malloy has fought to remove these barriers and encourage interdisciplinary dialogue. In a field previously dominated by normative values of majority power holders, a multidisciplinary approach allows for a more extensive examination of social trends and the question of innate human "rights". By relaxing the assumptions of traditional neoclassical economic analysis, one can gain a theoretical perspective that includes insights from multiple disciplines. This article reinforces Malloy's conceptualization of new social analysis, hoping to further this new interdisciplinary cooperation.

The State Of Economic Science: Views Of Six Nobel Laureates, Werner Sichel Editor

Upjohn Press

Six distinguished Nobel Laureates offer their views on the current state of economic science in a thought-provoking yet straightforward set of essays.

An Experimental Study Of Competitive Market Behavior, Vernon L. Smith

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in experimental games such as management decision-making games and games designed to simulate oligopolistic market phenomena. This article reports on a series of experimental games designed to study some of the hypotheses of neoclassical competitive market theory.