Transnational Economists in the Eurozone Crisis: Professional Structures,Networks and Ideas

ABSTRACT

In recent years IPE and EU studies scholars have examined how actors in international organisations and EU institutions shape policy ideas. This article explores the professional structure of economists affiliated to two Brussels-based think tanks, Bruegel and CEPS, who, in the context of the Eurozone crisis, sought to contribute to the production of policy solutions to douse the flames of the crisis and put forward long term recommendations for the EMU’s stability. Through the analysis of more than 300 CVs and by drawing on network and sequence analysis, the article shows that in their search for solutions, Brussels-based think tanks bring together economists from different EU member states, whose authority draws on academic qualifications, experience, and seniority. They are ‘multiple insiders’ connected to a wide range of institutions and professional networks, who move back and forth between professional and organisational networks and serve as bridges between revisionist, orthodox, and mixed economic ideas.     

Pauper Fiction in Economic Science: "Paupers in Almshouses" and the Odd Fit of Oliver Twist

The almshouse dominated the thinking about poverty and the poor during America's period of industrialization and its greatest economic downturns. Yet economists had surprisingly little to say about the facts of almshouse demography, and what they have written has been a rather bad fiction when seen in contrast with American novels. The main object of the paper is to delineate typical characters and characteristics of almshouses in America, and to examine the plausibility of various literary characterizations in light of the facts. The data certainly suggest new stories about paupers in American history: economists, and even the new social historians, have gotten it wrong. Between the Civil War and the Great Depression, the typical pauper living in an almshouse was not Oliver Twist (as many believe). He was not the Shiftless Man of the classical imagination (as Malthusians and Benthamites believe). The typical pauper of an American almshouse was plural. Instructive examples in American literature include Lennie, of Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men ; Denver, of Toni Morrison's Beloved ; Mrs. Thomson, of Edward Eggleston's The Hoosier School-Master ; and Forrest Gump, of Winston Groom's Forrest Gump .     

Do Economists Have a Fatherland? How Global and National Efficiency Considerations Influence Economists’ Policy Judgements

This study evaluates whether economists support economic policies such as free trade because they deem them to be good for their home country or because they increase global welfare. In a telephone survey, 100 German economists were asked to judge different policy proposals dealing with immigration, military exports and climate policy. Our results show that the acceptance of the policy proposals is strongly influenced by national efficiency judgements. In contrast, global efficiency judgements exert no significant positive effect on policy proposal acceptance. These effects even hold for economists who self‐reported a global perspective in the assessment of the policy proposals. These judgements might be based on the potentially erroneous assumption that their policy judgements, taken from a national perspective, are consistent with global interests.     

Francis Ysidro Edgeworth's Catalan grandfather

Based on a 1831 note by Lord Holland, Sir John Hicks incorrectly concluded in a 1984 article that the maternal grandfather of Francis Ysidro Edgeworth, General Antonio Eroles, ‘a political refugee from Catalonia’ according to Keynes (), was a close relative of the Baron of Eroles. In this article, new information from Spanish and Irish sources about Antonio Eroles and his family is presented. It includes his birth place and day and it details his activities during the period 1823?–?34. As a consequence of this information, Lord Holland and Sir John Hicks' speculations are refuted.     

Balkanization and assimilation: Examining the effects of state-created homogeneity

Charles Dickens was a reformer who sought to reform economic conditions. Convinced that the reforms proposed by the economists of his day would not benefit those victimized by the Industrial Revolution, he also sought to reform economics. Dickens' prime targets were McCulloch, Malthus, and Nassau Senior. Reviewing Dickens's efforts at social reform, Chesterton made the distinction between pessimistic reformers, who describe how bad people are under bad conditions, and optimistic reformers, who describes how good people are under bad conditions. The author draws similar parallels between mainstream economists and social economists.     

广东改革开放与广东经济学者

本文对30年前中国大陆经济体制的内容、特征和弊端进行了回溯,并以此作为参照物,对广东经济学者在改革开放中的亮点性的思考进行了概述。同时指出,广东经济学者的主要贡献在于:推崇"市场导向"改革,建言"市场经济"目标;倡导多元分立架构,支持产权制度改革;重视分配激励功能,创新市场分配理论;肯定特区对外开放,维护特区市场经济;倡导外向型经济和主张经济国际化。     

WHAT'S AN ECONOMICS SEMINAR WORTH? INFORMATION AUTHORS AND ORGANIZERS SHOULD KNOW

Abstract This paper is an empirical study of the publication records of communications to a weekly seminar, continued from 1997. We look at the quality of publications, and also at the determinants of publications. Our results offer lessons for both presenters and organizers of research seminars in academia.