Economic Growth Related to Mutually Interdependent Institutions and Technology

The following propositions are argued. Technological advance is a necessary condition for sustained economic growth. It can be sustained by more then one set of institutions. Technology and institutions co-evolve. Although some institutions inhibit growth while others encourage it, no single institution is either necessary or sufficient to produce either sustained or zero growth. Sustained growth began with the two Industrial Revolutions and was solidified by the 'invention of how to invent'. Explaining these events requires studying several trajectories that were established in the medieval period and evolved slowly through the early modern period and were unique to the West.Sustained growth, institutions, technological change, technological trajectories, the Industrial Revolutions, early modern science, medieval universities.

Some Legacies of Robbins'Nature and Signifance of Economic Science

The Abstract of your paper: This paper criticises three Robbinsian positions still often found in modern economics: (1) the methodology of intuitively obvious assumptions; (2) treating facts as illustrations rather than as tests of theoretical propositions; (3) assuming that theory provides universally applicable generalisations independent of the characteristics of individual economies and so are independent of specific historical processes. Two corollaries of point (3) are that theory cannot assist in explaining unique historical events such as the emergence of sustained growth in the West and that economists need not interest themselves in the details of the technologies that produce the nation's wealth.methodology, economic generalisations, measurement, positive economics, historical specificity

Multilateral Versus Regional Trading Arrangements: Substitutes Or Compliments?

We summarise salient developments in the interaction of the multilateral trading system and multilateral trading agreements (MTAs) on the one hand and regional trading agreements (RTAs) on the other. We then consider the economic effects of RTAs, comparing customs unions with free trade agreements. We argue, contrary to much received wisdom, that either may produce more economic benefits than the other, depending on the specific context in which they are introduced. There follows a discussion of the political economy effects of RTAs. Some of these have unfavourable, some neutral and some favourable effects on the progress of further MTAs. We conclude that the case against RTAs as eroding the MTS and inhibiting further MTA negotiations, as expounded by such economists as Krueger and Bhagwati, is not well founded. There remain grounds for optimism that the process of competitive liberalisation in RTAs will lead eventually to further multilateral liberalisation.customs unions, free trade areas, multilateral agreements, multilateral trading system, regional agreements, rules of origin, scale economies, trade creation, trade diversion.

Policy Implications of Alternative Economic Paradigms: Some Surprises from Endogenous Technological Changes

One of the most neglected issues in modern economics concerns the consequences of technological change that is ubiquitous and endogenous. To address these we need to model technology as more than a scalar value in an aggregate production function, dealing with technological change in its messy micro economic details. This paper illustrates these points by considering the policy implications of some alternative economic theories that treat technology differently. The first section contrasts the policy implications of neoclassical and evolutionary economics with respect to the evaluation of the efficiency of the price system, policies with respect to \u27distortions,\u27 policies to discourage monopolies, to encourage economic growth in general, and infant industries and specific technological advances in particular. The second section contrasts New Classical and various versions of Keynesian economics with respect to micro behavioural underpinnings of macro relations, the place of technology as a driving force of economic change, and aggregate demand as both a source of fluctuations and a variable to be manipulated by policy makers

Policies for Green Growth Versus Policies for No Growth: A Matter of Timing

Advocates of green-growth policies and those who advocate policies to stop growth both accept that the world faces serious environmental problems. They disagree on and debate about appropriate remedies. Green-growth advocates argue that it is possible to create a green economy compatible with sustained growth. The no-growth advocates argue that the whole growth process must be stopped if the planet is to be saved from catastrophe. This short paper argues that choosing the optimal policy for dealing with these serious problems does not require deciding which group is right. Instead it is argued that the optimal policy is to act as if the green-growth advocates are right and only if they are proved wrong by the failure of their policies to do the job, should no-growth policies be attempted

Generality Versus Context Specificity: First, Second and Third Best in Theory and Policy

Second-best theory established that a policy\u27s effect on community welfare (or any other objective function) varies with its specific context. In contrast, Ng argues that fulfilling first-best conditions piecemeal is optimal whenever the policy maker\u27s information is insufficient to determine the direction of the change in the variable under consideration that will raise welfare, irrespective of the conditions in that market. We argue: (1) that Ng\u27s own assumptions imply not that first-best conditions should be established under these circumstances, but that the status quo should be maintained; (2) that when Ng\u27s key assumption is altered to be empirically relevant, all policy decisions become fully context-specific; (3) that Woo\u27s argument for accepting Ng\u27s conclusions in spite of point (2) is incorrect. The conclusion discusses valid uses of piecemeal welfare theory in spite of second best

Le contrôle des prix et des revenus au Canada

This paper is a summary of the Legal Factum submitted by the Canadian Labor Congress to the Supreme Court of Canada. It intends to demonstrate the irrelevance of the Anti-Inflationnary Act of October 1975. Three main questions are dealt with.First, was there an economic crisis in October 1975? Analysing various sets of data, the paper concludes that, by no stretch of imagination, could October 1975 be called an economic crisis. Second, was there a policy crisis in the sense that traditional methods had been tried and failed? It establishes here that no serious attempt had been made to contain inflation by traditional fiscal and monetary tools by October 1975. Third, what results can be expected from income policies? This part gives a summary of the voluminous evidence for the U.K. and the U.S., and concludes that the evidence of other incomes policies is that their effects on slowing the rate of inflation are small and often transitory

Economic Policy with and Without Maximizing Rules

This paper contrasts the static neoclassical and the evolutionary views of the economy and economic policy. It responds to Ng\u27s comments on Lipsey\u27s original criticism of third-best theory. Under a relevant definition of informational poverty and Ng\u27s other assumptions, the expected value of any policy-created divergence from the status quo is negative: If there is not enough known to determine what to do, nothing should be done, rather than establishing first-best conditions as Ng\u27s analysis has it. It is argued that Ng\u27s analysis of his two other information states adds little to what common sense suggests. To address Ng\u27s argument that policies using context-specific objective functions lack the required welfare basis, the paper studies how economic policy is actually pursued absent guides provided by welfare economics. Policies that follow from evolutionary economic theory imply that what are seen as \u27distortions\u27 in welfare economics are actually desirable forces that drive economic growth

Joseph Agassi, the M2t Seminar, and His Influence on My Work

This paper discusses the influence on my research and writings of several methodological principles that we, the members of the LSE Staff Seminar on Methodology, Measurement and Testing learned directly from Joseph Agassi and indirectly from Karl Popper. It begins  with the origins of the seminar and my text book, An Introduction to Positive Economics. It goes on to cover methodological issues that arose in my subsequent papers including: the importance of having empirical content in economic theories, the poverty of theories that are built only to pass sunrise tests, why non-robust assumptions need to be tested, the concept of refutability, the fussy distinction between normative and positive statements, the impossibility of giving purely positive policy advice, the testing of existential statements, fallacious attempts to deduce empirical propositions from definitional identities, the distinction between internally and externally driven research programs, the poverty of modern welfare economics as a guide  to policy and the possibility of deriving policy advice without such guidance. It concludes with a short discussion of the revolutionary implications of accepting technological change as being generated endogenously under conditions of genuine uncertainty rather than measurable risk