Gabriel Porcile (ECLAC)
There is important news from the economics front line. I strongly encourage everyone to look at both the CORE project directed by Samuel Bowles and Wendy Carlin, and the new book on development economics authored by Jaime Ros.
Samuel Bowles and Carlin Soskice need no introduction. They do solid and rigorous economic theory, while at the same time are open-minded, creative and committed to work with the big questions of our profession – how to ensure growth with equality, how to find social arrangements that allow for cooperation and positive sum games, how we can put the analytical prowess of economic theory to serve useful, ethical purposes.
Sometimes one feels that economists have got it wrong. Just to cite a couple of examples: economists strenuously defended the efficiency of the financial markets even in the light of catastrophic global financial crises; for many, many years they taught that the big trade-off in economics is between equality and growth in spite of massive evidence pointing in the opposite direction. These misleading myths are evaporating, but why did it take so long for the economists to change their views and learn from the evidence?
Samuel Bowles and Carlin Soskice need no introduction. They do solid and rigorous economic theory, while at the same time are open-minded, creative and committed to work with the big questions of our profession – how to ensure growth with equality, how to find social arrangements that allow for cooperation and positive sum games, how we can put the analytical prowess of economic theory to serve useful, ethical purposes.
Sometimes one feels that economists have got it wrong. Just to cite a couple of examples: economists strenuously defended the efficiency of the financial markets even in the light of catastrophic global financial crises; for many, many years they taught that the big trade-off in economics is between equality and growth in spite of massive evidence pointing in the opposite direction. These misleading myths are evaporating, but why did it take so long for the economists to change their views and learn from the evidence?
The reason in part -- and just in part -- is that economists have difficulties to allow the real world to enter in their models. Moreover, we have tended to systematically neglect the study of politics, history and institutions. This is now changing and Carlin and Soskice are in the very front line in the effort to write textbooks in economics with a novel approach. History, power and politics are explicitly included in the models and shape the outcomes of economic processes. Have a look: you just need to register and get the preliminary material for free at http://core-econ.org/.
Not all the good news comes from outside the region. Jaime Ros is a well-known Mexican economist who is also opening paths by combing economic theory with an open-minded discussion of the central problems and specificities of developing economies. Jaime combines part of the neoclassical traditions with fresh insights and tools drawn from the Keynesian, Kaleckian and structuralist traditions. He made key contributions to development theory based on the best of these traditions – a research project which in many ways converges with the abovementioned work of Bowles-Carlin
Just check Jaime Ros latest book here, which in my opinion must be in the bibliography of all courses in economic development.
Just a brief notice: at some point in the future –we cannot so this now– we will come back to call your attention to what Kaleckians are doing –people like Robert Blecker, Amitava Dutt, Marc Lavoie and Mark Setterfield, among others, who are building a set of articulated models that could help to rethink macrodynamics.
Not all the good news comes from outside the region. Jaime Ros is a well-known Mexican economist who is also opening paths by combing economic theory with an open-minded discussion of the central problems and specificities of developing economies. Jaime combines part of the neoclassical traditions with fresh insights and tools drawn from the Keynesian, Kaleckian and structuralist traditions. He made key contributions to development theory based on the best of these traditions – a research project which in many ways converges with the abovementioned work of Bowles-Carlin
Just check Jaime Ros latest book here, which in my opinion must be in the bibliography of all courses in economic development.
Just a brief notice: at some point in the future –we cannot so this now– we will come back to call your attention to what Kaleckians are doing –people like Robert Blecker, Amitava Dutt, Marc Lavoie and Mark Setterfield, among others, who are building a set of articulated models that could help to rethink macrodynamics.