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on Post Keynesian Economics |
| By: | Jeroen C.J.M. van den Bergh; Giorgos Kallis |
| Abstract: | We explore the idea of public policy from the perspective of evolutionary thinking. This involves paying attention to concepts like diversity, population, selection, innovation, coevolution, group selection, path-dependence and lock-in. We critically discuss the notion of evolutionary progress. The relevance of evolutionary dynamics is illustrated for policy and political change, technical change, sustainability transitions and regulation of consumer behaviour. A lack of attention for the development of evolutionary policy criteria and goals is identified and alternative choices are critically evaluated. Finally, evolutionary policy advice is compared with policy advice coming from neoclassical economics, public choice theory and theories of resilience and adaptive management. We argue that evolutionary thinking offers a distinct and useful perspective on public policy design and change. |
| Keywords: | Adaptive management, coevolution, escaping lock-in, evolutionary politics, evolutionary progress, innovation policy, optimal diversity, resilience, social-technical transition Length 43 pages |
| Date: | 2009–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esi:evopap:2009-02&r=pke |
| By: | Christian Schubert |
| Abstract: | Schumpeter’s and Hayek’s view of market coordination as being not about efficiency, but about endogenous change and never-ending discovery has been increasingly recognized even by the mainstream of economics. Underlying this view is the notion of creative learning agents who bring about novelty. We argue that apart from the challenges it poses for positive theorizing, novelty (be it technological, institutional or commercial) also has a complex normative dimension that standard welfare economics is unsuited to deal with. We show that welfare economics has to be reconstructed on the basis of evolutionary-naturalistic insights into the way human agents bring about, value and respond to novelty-induced change. |
| Keywords: | Novelty, Endogenous Change, Preference Formation, Welfare, Justice Length 28 pages |
| JEL: | D63 O12 |
| Date: | 2009–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esi:evopap:2009-03&r=pke |
| By: | Oded Galor |
| Abstract: | This paper provides an overview of the modern perspective on the relationship between inequality and economic development. |
| Keywords: | Inequality; Growth; Development |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bro:econwp:2009-3&r=pke |
| By: | Pranab Bardhan (Department of Economics, University of California, Berkeley); Dilip Mookherjee (Department of Economics, Boston University); Neha Kumar (International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington DC) |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates respective roles of private investments in irrigation and local government programs (land reforms, extension services, and infrastructure investments) in the growth of farm productivity in West Bengal, India between 1981-95. Using a farm panel from a stratified random sample of farms from major agricultural districts of West Bengal, we find evidence that private investment in irrigation which reduced irrigation costs for farms played an important role in the growth process. However, the growth in private investment was itself stimulated by tenancy registration and minikit distribution programs implemented by local governments. This channel helps account for the substantial spillover effects of the tenancy reform on non-tenant farms noted in an earlier study. Hence the observed productivity growth was a result of complementarity between private investment incentives and state-led institutional reforms. |
| Date: | 2009–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bos:iedwpr:dp-184&r=pke |
| By: | Hazel Burke |
| Abstract: | This toolkit is designed to help one plan and hold an exhibition to disseminate ones research for a non-academic audience. It draws mainly on our experiences of organising an exhibition in connection with the Living Resemblances project in a community arts centre in Manchester in March 2008. [Real Life Methods, ESRC] |
| Keywords: | toolkit; exhibition; dissemination methods; Budget; Exhibition layout; Planning content; Writing content; Designing material; Publicity |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2033&r=pke |