‘Economics with Training Wheels’: Using Blogs in Teaching and Assessing Introductory Economics

Blogs provide a dynamic interactive medium for online discussion, consistent with communal constructivist pedagogy. The author of this article describes and evaluates a blog assignment used in the teaching and assessment of a small (40–60 students) introductory economics course. Using qualitative and quantitative data collected across four semesters, students’ participation in the blog assignment is found to be associated with student ability, gender, and student perceptions of the blog. Importantly, students with past economics experience do not appear to crowd out novice economics students. Student performance is positively associated with the quality of their blog participation after controlling for student ability, suggesting that a focus on quality of student engagement could further improve learning outcomes. Students generally report overall positive experiences with the blog assignment.     

On Microfoundations and Keynes’ Economics

Most mainstream economists regard the principles of ‘rational choice’ theory as the only foundation of economics and insist that macroeconomics be based on those principles. These include certainty or certainty-equivalence, which followers of Keynes reject. Macrofoundations of microeconomics are often proposed instead. We argue that the issue is more complex and explain why it is unlikely that a logically watertight fit between the two levels of analysis will ever be achieved. The complex interactions within and between the two levels suggest that it is unhelpful to assign foundational status to either level. We examine Keynes’ General Theory is examined as an example and compromises are found to fit the two together. It is argued that compromise is inevitable and that good theorising entails defending the compromises made.     

Growth,environment, and culture—encompassing competing ideologies in one ‘new growth’ model

The debate about growth and the environment is fragmented due to ideological differences. Mainstream neoclassical and environmental economists tend to ignore deeper worries about long-term growth and nature. I show how competing positions can be interpreted within a single unifying framework. The interpretative tool is cultural theory, whereas the framework is a Schumpeterian growth model including environmentally oriented research in addition to ‘ordinary’ research. The two diagonals of cultural theory belong to economists and skeptics, respectively. The differences along the diagonals are about facts; for instance, economists disagree about the extent to which environmentally oriented research can mitigate the effects of economic growth. These differences are reflected in choice of parameter values. The key difference between the diagonals is in the choice of objective function—should we be maximizing consumption or ‘nature’? The model will not resolve the debate, but it does add clarity, pinning down differences and indicating questions for research. A neoclassical model may encompass problems deeper than resource use and pollution, and values other than those of the consumer.     

Pasinetti's ‘Structural Change and Economic Growth’: A Conceptual Excursus

A clear and organic exposition of Pasinetti's theoretical framework of Structural Change and Economic Growth has been prevented by misunderstandings and ambiguities concerning basic categories and terminology. The pre-institutional character of the approach, the nature of its equilibrium paths and the significance—and normative character—of the ‘natural’ economic system are some of the most controversial issues. The aim of this article is to present a conceptual excursus of the model to establish a solid foundation for fruitful discussions to be held with other Classical approaches.     

Institutions and ‘Science’: The Contest about Pluralism in Economics in France

ABSTRACT

For a long time, France was a country in which various approaches to economics coexisted. This pluralism began to dwindle in the mid-1990s. Since then, France has witnessed the increasing and now overwhelming domination of mainstream economics. This article, drawing on a study of the evolution of the recruitment of professors of economics in France, documents the situation and links the observed trends to the changing institutions governing the discipline (a centralized system evolving under the influence of international norms and instruments). It is demonstrated that far from being fair and neutral devices, the rules and instruments governing economics—notably the ranking lists of economic journals—incorporate specific worldviews strongly biasing the assessment of research toward the mainstream. This article documents the tentative use of ‘voice and exit’ by the French Association of Political Economy to reform the economics discipline. Furthermore, it discusses the arguments proclaimed by Jean Tirole to prevent the French Ministry of Higher Education from creating a new university section called ‘Economy and Society’ to reinstate pluralism: they fall back on a monistic view of science that is questioned notably by developments—both factual and conceptual—in science studies and epistemology.     

When Galbraith Frightened Conservatives: Power in Economics,Economists’ Power,and Scientificity

In this article, I first expound John Kenneth Galbraith’s general theory of power. Galbraith always took into account phenomena of power in economics, and shed light on the power of economists in particular. I then show how the reaction of conservatives to the broadcasting of the Age of Uncertainty highlights the relevance of Galbraith’s theory. Letters exchanged by conservative Lords in an effort to fight against Galbraith’s ideas paradoxically illustrate his theory. This leads to questions about the status of economists, popularizers, and experts. Finally, I argue that convictions have a crucial role in scientific production, and that Robert Solow’s distinction between the “serious scholars” and the proselyte economist is irrelevant because of its incapacity to understand how economists produce knowledge.     

The New ‘Passive Revolution’ of the Green Economy and Growth Discourse: Maintaining the ‘Sustainable Development’ of Neoliberal Capitalism

This paper analyses the rapidly emerging discourse of a green economy based on green growth. It highlights inherent conflicts and contradictions of this discourse such as the myth of decoupling growth from the environment, pollution generations and resource consumption. Using key theoretical constructs of both Gramsci and Polanyi, the paper argues that the green economy/growth discourse can be seen as a Gramscian ‘passive revolution’ whereby the dominant sustainable development discourse, subsumed by capitalist hegemony, is protected in the context of global environmental, economic and development crises. The ‘neoliberalising of nature’, or in other words, the privatisation, marketisation and commodification of nature, akin to Polanyi's fictitious commodities, continues and intensifies with green economy/growth strategies. Greening the economy and associated strategies of green growth divert attention from the social and political dimensions of sustainability and issues of social and international justice. In this way, the inexorable march or ‘sustainable development’ of neoliberal capitalism is maintained. This paper goes on to argue that contesting the claims of green economy/growth discourse through political struggles by civil society against the neoliberalisation of nature is a sign of a slowly emerging counter-hegemonic ‘double movement’ which challenges capitalist hegemony and the commodification of society–nature relations.     

Debt monetization,inflation, and the ‘neutral’ interest rate

The main purpose of this study is to explore the potential expansionary effect stemming from the monetization of debt. We develop a simple macroeconomic model with Keynesian features and four sectors: creditor and debtor households, businesses, and the public sector. We show that such expansionary effect stems mainly from the reduction in the financial cost to servicing the public debt. The efficacy of the channel that operates allegedly through the compression of the risk/term premium on securities is found to be ambiguous. Finally, we show that countries that issue their own currency can avert getting stuck in a structural ‘liquidity trap’ provided their central banks are willing to monetize the debt created by a strong enough fiscal expansion.     

Critical reflections on a realist interpretation of Friedman’s ‘Methodology of Positive Economics’

Uskali Mäki has offered an innovative scientific realist account of Milton Friedman’s 1953 essay, ‘The Methodology of Positive Economics’, which directly challenges the dominant instrumentalist interpretation. This paper offers critical reflections on Mäki’s approach and interpretation. It is argued that Mäki’s method of rereading-rewriting the text is problematic; that an unforced instrumentalist account of unrealistic assumptions can be extracted from the text itself; and that seemingly realist passages can be plausibly read as expressing an instrumentalist stance.     

Growth and crisis,unavoidable connection?

Periods of economic boom with rapid credit and GDP growth can be followed by sudden busts. In the presence of financial market imperfections, a simple modification of a neoclassical growth model can fully account for this behavior. I study a growth model for a small open economy where decreasing marginal returns to capital appear after the country has reached a threshold level of development, which is uncertain. Limited enforceability of contracts allows borrowers to default on their debt. Lenders optimally choose to suddenly restrict the supply of credit when the threshold is reached and decreasing marginal returns appear. Borrowers default, and a boom–bust cycle is generated.     

Economic Growth,Happiness and Socialism: Durkheim’s Critique of Economic Reason and Beyond

The paper argues that Durkheim’s positions on happiness and socialism are relevant in today’s neoliberal and post-affluent societies. Durkheim dissociates happiness from economic progress and makes it contingent upon the relationships between the individual and society. An important component of Durkheimian happiness is the dynamic equilibrium between desires and means. Therefore, his friendly criticism of the socialist project is that it promises to fulfil the desires that were released by a disembedded market economy. Durkheim’s point helps us to understand why the social democratic promise was broken and how the neoliberal imperatives of competition and unlimited wants sow unhappiness.     

Geoeconomic Assumptions,Insecurity, and ‘Free’ Trade in Central America

The Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) exemplifies interconnections and contradictions between geopolitical and geoeconomic agendas, including security, democracy, and resource marketing. Central American sovereignty is selectively weakened as states are increasingly dependent on the US and must synchronise governance with the expectations of their most important trade partner or risk becoming defendants in international tribunals. Salvadoran and Costa Rican governments have been accused of upholding environmental regulations that impede the profit-earning of multinational corporations, while the Guatemalan state was charged with violating domestic labour laws. Nevertheless, criminal behaviour and impunity are widespread across the region and seldom provoke US action. Five years after CAFTA's implementation, there is evidence of the erosion of democracy, repression of civil society, and uneven distribution of trade costs and benefits. These results have led some analysts to conclude CAFTA must be renegotiated, while others recommend human and labour rights protocols accompany free trade agreements.     

Communication in dynastic repeated games: ‘Whitewashes’ and ‘coverups’

Summary. We ask whether communication can directly substitute for memory in dynastic repeated games in which short lived individuals care about the utility of their offspring who replace them in an infinitely repeated game. Each individual is unable to observe what happens before his entry in the game. Past information is therefore conveyed from one cohort to the next by means of communication.When communication is costless and messages are sent simultaneously, communication mechanisms or protocols exist that sustain the same set of equilibrium payoffs as in the standard repeated game. When communication is costless but sequential, the incentives to whitewash the unobservable past history of play become pervasive. These incentives to whitewash can only be countered if some player serves as a neutral historian who verifies the truthfulness of others reports while remaining indifferent in the process. By contrast, when communication is sequential and (lexicographically) costly, all protocols admit only equilibria that sustain stage Nash equilibrium payoffs.We also analyze a centralized communication protocol in which history leaves a footprint that can only hidden by the current cohort by a unanimous coverup. We show that in this case the set of payoffs that are sustainable in equilibrium coincides with the weakly renegotiation proof payoffs of the standard repeated game.Received: 30 September 2002, Revised: 5 August 2003, JEL Classification Numbers: C72, C73, D82.We wish to thank an Associate Editor and Dino Gerardi as well as seminar participants at Arizona State, Columbia, Duke, Georgetown, Indiana, Montreal, Princeton, Rochester, Vanderbilt, VPI, the 2001 NSF/NBER Decentralization Conference, the Summer 2001 North American Econometric Society Meetings, and the Midwest Theory Conference, 2000, for useful comments and suggestions. All errors are our own.     

‘Employability-miles’ and worker employability awareness

This article studies the use and impact of a (‘Employability-miles’) voucher scheme. These vouchers could be used for participation in a restricted number of training courses, which all aim to stimulate employees to develop a more active attitude towards their own employability. Using data from two surveys of one firm’s workforce, we find that voucher use is related to various personality traits and personal characteristics. In particular, a worker’s ambition, goal setting and education level are positively related to voucher use. In addition, workers with longer tenure spend their vouchers more often. Conversely, workers with a more positive self-image as well as those who are negatively reciprocal spend their vouchers less often. The negative relation between voucher use and negative reciprocity suggests that workers who are more negatively reciprocal perceive the voucher as an HR tool for outplacement. Further, we find that voucher use positively affects worker employability awareness and willingness to train. Remarkably, participation in non voucher training shows little relation to personality traits. From a human resources (HR) perspective, this finding suggests that by employing a voucher scheme, the firm makes training participation more dependent on employee personality and individual characteristics instead of the HR development strategy of the firm.     

‘Icarian Geography’: Air Power,Closed Space,and British Decolonisation

Through the first half of the twentieth century, strategists and statesmen in Britain struggled reconcile the advent of intercontinental air power with the geopolitical logic of the British Empire. This article explores how, and to what extent, their efforts might have catalysed the onset of British decolonisation.     

Think-tanks,policy formation,and the ‘revival’ of classical liberal economics

The Review of Austrian Economics - There is a widespread view that the ‘rise of neo-liberalism’ was a deliberate and designed phenomenon, brought about by ideologically motivated...