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on History and Philosophy of Economics |
| By: | Advani, Arun; Ash, Elliott; Boltachka, Anton; Cai, David; Rasul, Imran |
| Abstract: | Issues of racial justice and economic inequalities between racial and ethnic groups have risen to the top of public debate. Economists' ability to contribute to these debates is based on the body of race‐related research. We study the volume and content of race‐related research in economics. We base our analysis on a corpus of 225, 000 economics publications from 1960 to 2020, to which we apply an algorithmic approach to classify race‐related work. Since 1960, less than 2% of economics publications have been race‐related. On content, while over 50% of race‐related publications in the 1970s focused on Black individuals, by the 2010s this had fallen to 20%. There has been a steady decline in the share of race‐related research on discrimination since the 1980s, with a rise in the share of studies on identity. Finally, we apply our algorithm to NBER and CEPR working papers posted over the last four decades, to study an earlier stage of the research process. We document a concentration of race‐related research into a few fields, and its continued absence from many others. We discuss implications of our findings for economists' ability to contribute to debates on race and ethnicity in the economy. |
| JEL: | A11 B41 |
| Date: | 2025–11–14 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:130250 |
| By: | Baker, Maher Asaad |
| Abstract: | Purpose This paper provides a critical synthesis of the key developments in the application of behavioral economics (BE) to public policy from 2015 to 2025. It analyzes the field's institutionalization, the evolution of its core concepts, and the significant critiques that have shaped its modern trajectory. Design/methodology/approach This article is a comprehensive literature review, synthesizing findings from published academic papers, institutional reports, and meta-analyses. It systematically maps empirical findings across policy domains and critically examines ethical, methodological, and practical challenges. Findings The review finds that BE has matured from a novel tool into an established field. Mechanisms like defaults, framing, and friction reduction have been widely deployed with varying success. This period has also been defined by a critical reckoning with the replication crisis and ethical debates concerning autonomy. The field is responding by integrating with computational social science and artificial intelligence, moving toward more interdisciplinary and empowering approaches. Originality/value This review offers a nuanced, critical analysis of a pivotal decade in behavioral public policy. It moves beyond cataloging interventions to provide a coherent narrative of institutionalization, challenge, and adaptation. The paper concludes that the field's value lies in fostering a more realistic, evidence-based, and human-centric paradigm for policy design. |
| Keywords: | behavioral economics, literature review, policy design, nudge, choice architecture, public policy, policy design |
| JEL: | B40 D03 D04 D90 H00 |
| Date: | 2025–09–19 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:126231 |
| By: | Sengupta, Atanu; De, Sanjoy |
| Abstract: | This year’s Economics Nobel is provided for finding out the cause of innovation-destructive creation of new ideas. It is also highly individualistic. First, it neglects the welfare of those who lose the race and are destroyed. Can they assimilate this new knowledge and how? If not, then… Second, it neglects the very quality of creative destruction. In a capitalist society as Harrai (2014) argues innovation is always profit motivated. The discoverer of ORS, the simple thing that saved lives of million during dysentery is not recognized. Innovation of vaccine against malaria and dengue are still on a very primitive stage. Development of learning techniques that help first generation learners have taken a back seat to the hype in Artificial Intelligence. The idea of creative destruction is appropriate to understand the evolution of the new world through a serious of continuous innovation and creation of new techniques, replacing the old ones. However, still there remain some broader aspects which the so-called growth theorists miss out. Yuval Noah Harari tries to point out some of the areas uncharted by the growth theorists. But, the ultimate vision of growth, as provided in the Mahayana doctrine is to lift all in a great vehicle. |
| Keywords: | Creative Destruction, Growth, Economics Nobel, Industrial Revolution, Capital |
| JEL: | O47 |
| Date: | 2025–10–30 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:126695 |
| By: | Guiot Isaac, Andres |
| Abstract: | Argument: Development planning was a form of interventionist social knowledge widely used in the mid-twentieth century. Planning was employed with different aims, and the adoption of concrete techniques and procedures was highly sensitive to each country’s institutional context. This article studies the life trajectory of Colombia’s Ten-year Plan, an internationally celebrated attempt to design economic development on a large scale in what actors characterized as a politically “democratic” and economically “liberal” setting. Based on the Colombian case, I argue that a central function of planning in developing countries was to build trust, on behalf of local stakeholders and international donors, in the state’s capacity to credibly use public resources and foreign aid to achieve its development aims. In turn, planning also allowed outsiders to invigilate the actions taken by states on the economy, and to make them accountable for their commitments. I examine the media of persuasion used in the build-up to, and the publicization and revision of the Ten-year Plan, to account for the shift from the macro scale of comprehensive plans to the smaller-scale development interventions observed in the 1960s. This case shows that the malleability of planning procedures was key for the enduring resilience of the planning system. |
| Keywords: | development planning; media of trust; Colombia; technical experts; planning manuals |
| JEL: | N0 |
| Date: | 2025–11–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:129343 |
| By: | Takeshi Ojima; Shinsuke Ikeda |
| Abstract: | If dishonest behavior stems from a self-control problem, then offering the option to commit to honestywill reduce dishonesty, provided that it lowers the self-control costs of being honest. To test thistheoretical prediction, we conducted an incentivized online experiment in which participants couldcheat at a game of rock-paper-scissors. Treatment groups were randomly or invariably offered a hardHonesty-Commitment Option (HCO), which could be used to prevent cheating. Our between- andwithin-subject analyses reveal that the HCO provision significantly reduced cheating rates byapproximately 64%. Evidence suggests that the commitment device works by lowering self-controlcosts, which is more pronounced in individuals with low cognitive reflection, rather than by anobserver effect. Further analyses reveal two key dynamics. First, an individual’s frequency of not usingthe HCO reliably predicts their propensity to cheat when the option is unavailable. Second, repeatedlydeciding not to use the commitment device can become habitual, diminishing the HCO provision’seffect in reducing cheating over time. This research highlights the effectiveness of honesty-commitment devices in policy design while also noting that their disuse can become habitual, pointingto a new dynamic in the study of cheating. |
| Date: | 2025–10–31 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:toh:tupdaa:76 |