Resources and Economic Dynamics, Technology and Rents

The essay investigates non producible (natural) resources and rent from three points of views: stylized facts, quantitative economics and economic theory. Taking the first point of view, the author discusses how economic growth can be represented in terms of never-ending tension between scarcity and technical progress. At least since the onset of modern economic growth, whenever scarcity produced a slowdown of growth, technical progress followed and scarcity was thereby removed. Scarcity, in a long-run perspective, has always been of the «relative» type, while absolute scarcity never set in. This essay consider this problem from many points of view. First of all it considers the point of view of quantitative economics like those of Simon Kuznets and Wassily Leontief who emphasized the relative character of scarcity and the importance of keeping the relationship between scarcity and innovation into account (this is especially true of Kuznets). Secondly the essay considers the contribution of economic theory. In this connection, the author points out that both the macroeconomic and multi-sectoral models developed since the 1930s overlooked the investigation of scarce natural resources and rent, as well as their relationship with technical progress. Only Piero Sraffa examined non producible resources and rent but he has done it in a single-period model. The author of this essay investigated the same issues in a more general analytical set-up starting with a contribution published in 1967 followed by many others. Later on, Quadrio Curzio and Pellizzari, especially in the 1996 volume, analyzed the general relationships among production, prices, income distribution, technical progress and growth when scarce resources play a significant role. Those contributions also investigated the nature of technological rents, which are an important feature of modern economic growth in the presence of technical progress. At the same time Quadrio Curzio, in collaboration with Marco Fortis and Roberto Zoboli, analysed historical, quantitative and qualitative aspects of economic dynamics, and the way in which natural resources and raw materials exert an influence on economic growth and more generally economic dynamics. Those aspects are not fully considered in the present essay, but they represent its fundamental background. Finally in 2008 Quadrio Curzio, Pellizzari and Zoboli outlined in a valuable encyclopaedic dictionary a compact synthesis of the above approach to the economic analysis of raw materials and primary commodities. The essay takes a point of view which is not typical of the «post- Keynesian» approach, yet it belongs to a post-classical perspective that is closely connected to the Italian-Cambridge tradition of political economy as a social discipline. Tradition on which Alberto Quadrio Curzio, especially researching with Roberto Scazzieri, focused his attention in many essays from a methodological point of view.natural resources; technological innovation; relative scarcity; investments; rent;

Resources and Technologies

This Working Paper joint two previous articles by the authors: The economic theory of exhaustible natural resources, in “Enciclopedia degli Idrocarburi”, vol. IV, Istituto della Enciclopedia Treccani, Roma, 2008, pp. 3-10;Technological innovation, relative scarcity, investments, in “Enciclopedia degli Idrocarburi”, vol. IV, Istituto della Enciclopedia Treccani, 2008, pp. 11-22. In the first one (cap. 1-4), we consider the contribution of economic theory (partly through a reevaluation of history) in order both to interpret and predict events, and to identify economic policies; this happens especially when the world economy feels the significant constraints imposed by some natural resources and raw materials, partly due to the rapid growth of a number of developing countries, and when there is an urgent need to increase resources rapidly to ensure continuing availability. Even if the problem of scarce resources (of which natural resources are the most obvious category) has been central to analysis for centuries, natural resource economics is contradictory. The main reason for this is that economic theory is out of step with prevailing economic conditions, as a consequence of the varying concern for a crucial phenomenon in the dynamics of economic systems: the opposition-coexistence of the scarcity of natural resources and the producibility of commodities. Natural resource economics can be summarized by dividing it into three main lines of thought: the theory of producibility and scarcity developed by classical economists; the theory of general and natural scarcities developed by marginalists and neoclassicals; the theory of dynamics with and without natural scarcities developed by macroeconomists, structuralists and empirical stylizers. Using this three-way subdivision, which is not clearly codified in economic theory, the basic features of each approach will be examined with special attention to its early exponents. The historical starting point is the second half of the Eighteenth century, although we will ignore contributions such as those made by the Physiocrats who, during the same period, developed a theory of production based on the surplus generated by agriculture. In the second one (cap. 5-6), we consider that the role of technological innovation for resources use and conservation is often measured by empirical indicators of intensity or efficiency which express the evolution of resource use in relation to variables such as population and GDP. The historical evolution of these indicators tends to indicate a process of decoupling – in other words, a decrease in the energy/emissions intensity of economic activity or an increase in the efficiency/productivity of resource use. These empirical regularities have led to the proposition of stylized facts representing the relationships between resource-use efficiency and economic growth known as environmental Kuznets curves. However, the economic interpretations of the innovation mechanisms underlying the progress suggested by efficiency indicators, nonetheless, remain open and complex at the very time when there is increasing demand for further substantial advances in resource-use efficiency. We will survey the empirical evidence on the medium- and long-term dynamics of these indicators and will discuss their significance. This will be followed by an analysis of the possible role played by economic factors (especially resource prices and markets) and institutional factors (especially climate policy) in triggering and supporting progress in the use efficiency of energy resources.natural resources; technological innovation; relative scarcity; investments

Introduction

Introductory piece outlining the aims of IinteR-La+b (the International Interdisciplinary Research Laboratory of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences and the Balzan Foundation, held in Rome, at the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, 12–13 November 2012). Published in Giovanni Tarantino (ed.), “Our words, and theirs:” A conversation with Carlo Ginzburg on the historian’s craft, Cromohs 18 (2013)

Women, science and development: The leading role of OWSD

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Explaining Structural Change: Actions and Transformations

Theories of structural change identify the range of transformations that are possible under given economic structures. However, in order specify a path of change out of those which are possible, these theories need to make explicit or implicit assumptions about actions taking place within structures. This, we argue, suggests that (i) these theories can identify potential, but not actual paths of change; and (ii) structural change is to some degree open-ended, because existing structures open up a range of possibilities but do not determine the specific actions taken therein. In order to explain which path of structural change is activated under specific historical conditions, we need to study how actual actions take place within structures. The paper suggests a way to do so, pointing to the interface between theory, which highlights possibilities for structural change, and history, which may 'close' such open-endedness in different ways depending on context

L'economia politica e l'evoluzione del capitalismo negli ultimi quarant'anni

Convegno in onore di Giorgio Lunghini

Relations de la philosophie avec son histoire

It is a great honor to present one of the proceedings of the Institut In- ternational de Philosophie in the \uablessico Intellettuale Europeo\ubb series. Both have longstanding traditions. the Institut International de Philosophie (IIP) was founded during the momentous ann\ue9e Descartes of 1937 and its meet- ings have taken place on a yearly basis (with the exception of 1939 to 1946 because of World War two). Its first president was l\ue9on Robin. Past pres- idents during the last four decades were Georg Henrik von Wright, Max Black, Paul Ricoeur, Jerzy Pelc, David Pears, Ruth Barcan Marcus, Evan- dro agazzi, tomonobu Imamichi, Jaakko Hintikka, anne Fagot-largeault, Hans lenk, tom\ue1s Calvo Mart\uednez and Enrico Berti. Ioanna Ku\ue7uradi is currently the president and Bernard Bourgeois the secretary general. to date, its membership lists 102 philosophers from forty-four countries. Its several committees are concerned with international communication and coopera- tion in philosophy from the point of view of reason and tolerance. a con- stant focus is placed on the mutual opening of philosophical cultures, tra- ditions and approaches.1 the Istituto per il lessico Intellettuale Europeo of the National Research Council of Italy (lIE and since 2001 IlIESI) was founded in 1964 and has been hosting its own international meetings every three years. We are count- ing fifty-five Entretiens de l\u2019Institut International de Philosophie and fifteen Colloqui Internazionali del Lessico Intellettuale Europeo. the IlIESI is ded- icated to the history of cultural and scientific terminology. It focuses on the phenomenon of cultural migration, which accompanies the whole history of civilizations while involving continuous relations and reciprocal exchanges among diverse cultures, and thus translations (in their widest sense) of texts and modules from one to another context, be it linguistic, economic, politi- cal, or cultural. Its researchers investigate several epochs under the assump- tion that at the root of the history of philosophy and of the sciences and more generally of the history of ideas lie textual corpora that have been de- veloped in the context of each discipline over the centuries.2 today, the \uablessico Intellettuale Europeo\ubb series, which was started in 1967, boasts 124 volumes. and we find it extremely inspiring that volume 125 of the series hosts the sixty-third IIP meeting, which is its sixth meeting in Italy, after Venice in 1958 (in coincidence with the twelfth World Con- gress of Philosophy), l\u2019aquila in 1964, Bellagio in 1982, Palermo in 1985 and Santa Margherita/Genova in 1989. all presentations but one that were given at the Entretiens de Rome of the Institut International de Philosophie on 24-28 September 2014 have found their way to this volume. appropriate funding was provided by the Italian Ministry for Education, university and Research within the PRIN2012 \u201cuniversalism and its limits\u201d, unit coordinator Riccardo Pozzo and national coordinator loris Sturlese. the four papers contributed by Giovanni Pugli- si, Hans Poser, Evandro agazzi and Enrico Berti were read at the meeting of the Committee on the History of Philosophy of the F\ue9d\ue9ration Interna- tionale des Soci\ue9t\ue9s de Philosophie (FISP) dedicated to the textual basis of the intercultural history of philosophy \u2013 Migrating Alphabets, which took place in Rome in the aula Marconi at the main seat of the National Re- search Council of Italy on 11 January 2011

Le Banche Popolari Cooperative. Profili italiani ed europei

Il volume raccoglie gli atti del Convegno Le Banche Popolari Cooperative: profili italiani ed europei, organizzato nel febbraio 2009 dall'Istituto Centrale delle Banche Popolari Italiane in collaborazione con l'Associazione Nazionale fra le Banche Popolari. Dedicato alla memoria di Giuseppe Murè, personalità che nel corso della propria vita ha dato un riconosciuto e significativo contributo allo sviluppo e alla crescita delle Banche Popolari, il convegno è stato un momento di riflessione e di confronto sul ruolo che le istituzioni bancarie cooperative sono chiamate a svolgere a sostegno del territorio, delle economie locali e del Sistema Paese, nel più ampio accoglimento dei valori di sussidiarietà, solidarietà e sviluppo che ne hanno caratterizzato fin dalla nascita lo spirito e l'operato. I contributi del vice direttore generale della Banca d'Italia A. M. Tarantola, di Accademici (A. Quadrio Curzio, C. Rotondi, S. Zamagni, G. Muré, S. De Angeli, G. Ferri, M. Fortis, C. D'Adda, M. Condemi) e di Banchieri (G. De Censi, C. Fratta Pasini, M. Stacca, H. Guider, G. De Lucia Lumeno) hanno fornito una panoramica completa delle prospettive delle Banche Popolari Cooperative nel contesto nazionale ed internazionale

Introduction to “Our words, and theirs:” A conversation with Carlo Ginzburg on the historian’s craft

Introductory piece outlining the aims of IinteR-La+b (the International Interdisciplinary Research Laboratory of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences and the Balzan Foundation, held in Rome, at the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, 12–13 November 2012). Published in Giovanni Tarantino (ed.), “Our words, and theirs:” A conversation with Carlo Ginzburg on the historian’s craft, Cromohs 18 (2013)