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on Post Keynesian Economics |
| By: | Anna M. Carabelli; Mario A. Cedrini (SEMEQ Department - Faculty of Economics - University of Eastern Piedmont) |
| Abstract: | In their latest book (2008), Bruno Frey and the members of the research group he chairs at the University of Zurich announce that happiness research is leading a revolution in economics. More precisely, the revolutionary character of happiness economics would draw on measurement, on how people value goods and social conditions, as well as on policies. This paper aims to discuss critically this claim and what we identified as five crucial issues of mainstream happiness economics, i.e.: 1. the ambiguous relationship between income and happiness, 2. the “back to Bentham” approach, 3. problems of incommensurability, 4. heterogeneity and multidimensionality, 5. the scope of economics in relation to happiness. In so doing, we attempt to review John Maynard Keynes’s vision about happiness and economics, starting from a revisiting of his essay Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren in the light of his early unpublished writings on ethics as well as of the whole bulk of his writings in economics. We then provide reasons to argue that the rediscovery of Keynes’s legacy in this respect can be of help to point out and examine the most controversial aspects of today’s happiness research. |
| Keywords: | Happiness, Happiness economics, John Maynard Keynes, Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren |
| JEL: | H1 I31 B31 |
| Date: | 2009–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upo:upopwp:123&r=pke |
| By: | Zhigao Liu |
| Abstract: | The paper tries to construct the historical methodology for evolutionary economic geography. I elevate history to the methodological foundation of evolutionary economic geography, on which concrete research methods should be based. I explore how to evolution in economic geography by placing history in historical time and historical contexts. Accordingly, the concepts of path creation and path dependence should be used together in historical study. More important, the concept of path interdependence, which stresses the importance of the circumstances under which different processes and events are likely to occur, opens a new window on the temporal aspects of the world. |
| Keywords: | Organizational ecology, fashion industry, creative industries, clusters, institutional lock-in |
| Date: | 2009–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:0901&r=pke |
| By: | Ron Boschma; Koen Frenken |
| Abstract: | Within the evolutionary economic geography framework the role of institutions deserves more explicit attention. We argue that territorial institutions are to be viewed as orthogonal to organisational routines in that each territory is characterised by a variety of routines, and in that a single firm can apply its routines in different territorial contexts. It is therefore meaningful to distinguish between institutional economic geography and evolutionary economic geography as their explanans is different. Yet, the two approaches can be combined in a dynamic framework in which institutions co-evolve with organisational routines, particularly in emerging industries. Furthermore, integrating the evolutionary and institutional approach allows one to analyse the spatial diffusion of organisational routines that mediate conflicts between social groups, in particular, those between capitalists and labourers. An evolutionary economic geography advocates an empirical research program, both qualitative and quantitative, in which the relative importance of organisational routines and territorial institutions for regional development can be addressed. |
| Keywords: | evolutionary economic geography, routines, institutions |
| Date: | 2008–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:0817&r=pke |