'Humanomics' of Ranade

M.G. Ramrde (1842-1901) was among the pioneering thinkers of India who, wanted modification in classical economics and criticized it because of its abstraction, miscalculation of human nature, and no accounting of socio-cultural environment and religious elements. The present paper aims to study this aspect of his contribution to economic theory in general and to Indian school of economics in particular. We refer to it as 'Humanomics' because he gave the prime importance to diverse human society and culture, its values and beliefs in formulation and application of economic theory.Human Economics, Ethico-economics; Indian economic Thought.

Economics as a Discipline of Instrumental Reason. Looking at Economics as a Science from the Perspective of the Frankfurt School of Philosophy

The article is built around the analysis of The critique of instrumental reason by Horkheimer, applied to issues connected with the philosophy of economics. Positive economics is under-stood as an example of a discipline where the pragmatic paradigm has been implemented. Therefore, economics functions within the boundaries of what Horkheimer called instrumental rationality. The starting point is the intellectual source shared by economics and the Frankfurt School, namely Kant’s philosophy of rationality. In the first part of the article, three of Kant’s ideas that are fundamental to economics are presented, and then the development of their application in philosophy of science, as seen by Horkheimer in 1947, is laid out. The second part of the article consists of enumerating various distinctive features of economics that set it apart from other social sciences and which constitute factors for which it can be considered a realm of the reign of ‘instrumental rationality’, with all the threats such an approach provokes. The above-mentioned features concentrate on treating humans in economics as a means, not as a goal. This aspect of the philosophy of science of the Frankfurt School (unlike its critique of capitalism as an economic system) has not been widely received

Welfarism, Preferencism, Judgmentism

In a single framework, I address the question of the informational basis for evaluating social states. I particularly focus on information about individual welfare, individual preferences and individual (moral) judgments, but the model is also open to any other informational input deemed relevant, e.g. sources of welfare and motivations behind preferences. In addition to proving some possibility and impossibility results, I discuss objections against using information about only one aspect (e.g. using only preference information). These objections suggest a multi-aspect informational basis for aggregation. However, the multi-aspect approach faces an impossibility result created by a lack of inter-aspect comparability. The impossibility could be overcome by measuring information on non-cardinal scales.public economics ;

Internal migration: a review of the literature

The interest of interregional migration flows in economics covers two important aspects. The first aspect concerns the role played by the main macroeconomic variables in determining the intensity and the directions of the migration flows. The second aspect focuses on migration as an important variable that might affect the growth rate. This study reviews and discusses the main literature on migration with respect to these two branches of study.Internal migration; survey; gravity model; migration and growth

Valuing indigenous biodiversity in the freshwater environment

Biosecurity incursion response decisions require timely, high quality information involving science and economics. The value of the impact on indigenous biodiversity is a key aspect of the economics typically involving cost-benefit analysis. The hypothetical incursion of Biosecurity New Zealand’s top priority weed hydrilla (Hydrilla verticillata) in a typical New Zealand lake (Lake Rotoroa otherwise known as Hamilton Lake) elicits dollar values of impacts on indigenous biodiversity in a freshwater environment. Using the stated preference tool, Choice Modelling, the experimental design was maximised for efficiency of Willingness to Pay (WTP) estimation. The survey method of community meetings of four population samples at varying distances to the incursion site is a cross between a mail survey and an individual interview survey. Results show an efficient design with minimal sample size and biodiversity attributes that have values statistically different from zero but not statistically different between locations.Non-market valuation, biosecurity, biodiversity, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use,

SELECTING FUNCTIONAL FORM IN PRODUCTION FUNCTION ANALYSIS

Functional form selection is a sometimes neglected aspect of applied research in production analysis. To provide an improved and uniform basis for form selection, a number of traditional and popular functional forms are catalogued with respect to intrinsic properties. Guidelines for the conduct of form selection are also discussed.Production Economics, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Contrasting future paths for an evolving global climate regime

This paper explores two different conceptions of how an emerging climate regime might evolve to strengthen incentives for more vigorous cooperation in mitigating global climate change. One is the paradigm that has figured most prominently in negotiations to this point: the establishment of targets and timetables for countries to limit their aggregate greenhouse gas emissions. The other approach consists of a variety of loosely coordinated smaller scale agreements, each one of which addresses a different aspect of the challenge, and is enforced in its own way. The primary conclusion is that an agreement of the first type may be more cost-effective, but that a system of agreements of the second type would likely sustain more abatement overall.Climate Change Mitigation and Green House Gases,Climate Change Economics,Montreal Protocol,Environmental Economics&Policies,Transport Economics Policy&Planning

Old George Orwell Got it Backward: Some Thoughts on Behavioral Tax Economics

It is entirely appropriate that the study of public finance take seriously “behavioral” inconsistencies with traditional models of individual and collective decision-making. This raises the question of whether the state should play a role in protecting individuals from themselves, and whether individuals are susceptible to manipulation, or even exploitation, by the people who comprise the state. In this essay I address one aspect of this issue – how it affects an economic analysis of tax systems. In addressing this task I ask, and offer some tentative answers to, what is distinctive about behavioral tax economics as a sub-field of behavioral economics and as a sub-field of tax economics.complexity, compliance

Pareto on the History of Economic Thought as an Aspect of Experimental Economics

The reasons for studying the history of economic thought are diverse. The extreme range of reasons include suggestions that research in this field is: a way of passing time on an intellectual curiosity; an investment in human capital which contributes to a more profound understanding of modern economic theory; an activity of historical interest only, totally devoid of concern with the purely scientific merits of theories; or a subject for sociologists intent on understanding the culture of science and how this has influenced the evolution of scientific knowledge. Interestingly, Pareto had a well developed idea of the scientific reasons for undertaking histories of economic thought, which he saw as an aspect of “experimental economics”. This paper investigates how, and why, Pareto incorporated the history of economic thought as a central element of experimental economics. His approach to the history of economics is shown to be historical, albeit in a limited sense, and non-historical, in the sense that it provided data for the development of experimental hypotheses and theory pertaining to the sociological part of the economic phenomenon.Exegesis, experimental economics, history of economic thought, Pareto

François Perroux, a precursor of the current analyses of power

Without any doubt, François Perroux is one of the most important European economists of the 20st century. Today, in English-speaking countries, François Perroux is recognized mostly for his original contributions in the field of spatial economics and economics of development. However, taking into account the variety of his contributions, Perroux deserves certainly more attention. This paper underlines a less well-known aspect of Perroux‟s works: his illuminating views on asymmetry, domination and power which can be considered a source of works carried out in this field half a century later, such as the American realist and neo-realist approaches to power or the concept of structural power developed by Susan Strange.Asymmetry; power; domination; influence; coercion