You are currently browsing the monthly archive for October, 2007.
What Was “It” that Robbins Was Defining?
| Date: | 2007-06 |
| By: | David Colander |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mdl:mdlpap:0706&r=hpe |
| This paper argues that Robbins’ famous definition of economics was of “economic science” which he saw as only a narrow branch of the field of economics. Moreover, it was descriptive, not prescriptive, and was simply a statement that that was what economists were then doing in the science of economics. His prescriptive message was that policy belonged in the “political economy” branch of economics, and that the science of economics should avoid value judgments, but that political economy should include value judgments. That prescriptive message has been lost. | |
Experimental Economics: Contributions, Recent Developments, and New Challenges
| Date: | 2007-03 |
| By: | Marie-Claire Villeval (GATE CNRS) |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gat:wpaper:0706&r=hpe |
| Although economics has long been considered as a non-experimental science, the development of experimental economics and behavioral economics is amazingly rapid and affects most fields of research. This paper first attempts at defining the main contributions of experiments to economics. It also identifies four main trends in the development of experimental research in economics. The third contribution of this paper is to identify the major theoretical and methodological challenges faced by behavioral and experimental economics. | |
| Keywords: | behavioral economy, Experimental economics, field experiment, quantitative methods |
| JEL: | A12 C90 D0 |
A Brief History of Production Functions
| Date: | 2007-10-09 |
| By: | Mishra, SK |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:5254&r=hpe |
| This paper gives an outline of evolution of the concept and econometrics of production function, which was one of the central apparatus of neo-classical economics. It shows how the famous Cobb-Douglas production function was indeed invented by von Thunen and Wicksell, how the CES production function was formulated, how the elasticity of substitution was made a variable and finally how Sato’s function incorporated biased technical changes. It covers almost all specifications proposed during 1950-1975, and further the LINEX production functions and incorporation of energy as an input. The paper in divided into (1) single product functions, (2) joint product functions, and (3) aggregate production functions. It also discusses the ‘capital controversy’ and its impacts. | |
| Keywords: | Production function; Cobb-Douglas; CES; Transcendental; translog; Zellner-Revankar; VES; Bruno; Kadiyala; Diewert; Kummel; Mundlak; Engineering production function; Multi-output; joint product; Data Envelopment; Household production function; Humbug production function; capital controversy; Cambridge controversy. |
| JEL: | C30 C20 D24 B16 B13 |
LIONEL ROBBINS’S ESSAY ON THE NATURE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF ECONOMIC SCIENCE -
75TH ANNIVERSARY
This year marks the 75th anniversary of Lionel Robbins’s Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science.
The Department of Economics at LSE and the editors of Economica have decided to mark this anniversary by a
conference and a special issue of the journal. Read the rest of this entry »
The next HES Annual Conference will be held at York University, in Toronto, Canada,
27-30 June 2008. As details become available, they will be posted on the HES website http://historyofeconomics.org/
Building on its previous research in the history of econometrics, modelling and measurement in economics, the History and Methodology Group of the Faculty of Economics and Business at the UvA is starting a new project. A recently awarded innovational research grant (VIDI) from the Netherlands Science Foundation (NWO) will enable us to write a history of observational practices in economics. We invite applications for Two PhD positions in the History and Methodology of Economics at the Universiteit van Amsterdam Read the rest of this entry »
The History of Economics Society is sponsoring the following sessions at the 2008 ASSA meetings in New Orleans. Jan. 4, 10:15 am, HES/AFA Read the rest of this entry »
ESHET Young Scholars Seminar
The European Society for the History of Economic Thought (ESHET) invites four young scholars (i.e. those who are working on, or have just completed a PhD, regardless of their age) to present their work at the Young Scholars Seminar to be held during the ESHET Conference in Prague, May 15-17, 2008 . The Society will provide for board, accommodation, registration fees and travel expenses up to €200. Each young scholar will have 30 minutes to present his/her paper and a senior scholar, appointed by the ESHET Council, will discuss it.
Read the rest of this entry »
Call for Papers
The 12th Annual Conference of the European Society for the History of Economic Thought (ESHET) will be held at the University of Economics, Prague (Czech Republic), 15th - 17th May, 2008.
The special theme of this year’s conference is Development and Transition in the History of Economic Thought. (Proposals for papers or sessions on all other aspects of the history of economic thought are also welcome.)
An abstract of no more than 200 words for a paper, or no more than 500 words for a session should be submitted before December 15 2007. To submit an abstract register at the conference website ( http://www.eshet.net/conference/2008 ) and follow the instructions.
Read the rest of this entry »
Subjective Measures of Well-Being and the Science of Happiness: Historical origins and philosophical foundations Date: February 2-3, 2008 Website: <http://www.dpo.uab.edu/~angner/swb.html> Read the rest of this entry »
