9 The Future of Economic Theory and Policy

2020 ◽  
pp. 163-182
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
The Future

Consumption and Well-Being

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Avner Offer
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Relative Income ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Standard Of Living ◽  
Behavioural Research ◽  
The Future

Consumption defines the standard of living – whether food is hot or cold, whether walls are dry or damp. It is the stuff of desires and dreams. It signals superiority, but also community. It drives policy and vexes scholars. But consumption is not consummation. Its purpose recedes even as it is being realized. If insatiability is the vortex at the heart of consumption, there are also other problems. In standard economic theory, consumers rank preferences in the present, but the most significant choices arise not between two immediate substitutes (say coffee or tea), but between the present and the future. This article opens with some standard assumptions about the benefits of consumption, and competing ones about its futility. It discusses the findings of social and behavioural research on consumption and well-being, the link between happiness and wealth, relative income, habituation, materialism, history and culture, advertising, myopia, narcissism, and individualism.

scholarly journals Automation Anxieties: Perceptions About Technological Automation and the Future of Pharmacy Work

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 191-208
Author(s):  
Cameron Piercy ◽  
Angela Gist-Mackey
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Mental Models ◽  
Technical Change ◽  
Mental Model ◽  
Socioeconomic Disparities ◽  
The Future ◽  
Pharmacy Technicians

This study uses a sample of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians (N = 240) who differ in skill, education, and income to replicate and extend past findings about socioeconomic disparities in the perceptions of automation. Specifically, this study applies the skills-biased technical change hypothesis, an economic theory that low-skill jobs are the most likely to be affected by increased automation (Acemoglu & Restrepo, 2019), to the mental models of pharmacy workers. We formalize the hypothesis that anxiety about automation leads to perceptions that jobs will change in the future and automation will increase. We also posit anxiety about overpayment related to these outcomes. Results largely support the skillsbiased hypothesis as a mental model shared by pharmacy workers regardless of position, with few effects for overpayment anxiety.

To What Extent Should We Enrich Law and Economics? On Calabresi and his Future of Law and Economics

Global Jurist ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Régis Lanneau
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Economic Theory ◽  
Real World ◽  
Law And Economics ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Future ◽  
Epistemological Point ◽  
Laws And Regulations

Abstract In this paper, I argue that the “expanded” economic theory advocated in Calabresi’s book “The Future of Law and Economics” could be interpreted in at least three different ways, all of which are compatible. First, Calabresi’s book could be interpreted as an attempt to incentivize lawyer-economists to explore laws and regulations from different angles or perspectives rather than merely apply neoclassical theories. Second, it could be considered an attempt to justify the introduction of the notion of moral costs into law and economics to better explain some legal realities. Third, it could be considered an attempt to advocate, in a more normative way, the need to incorporate moral costs into real world analysis to better improve upon decision making. This paper will address and discuss each of these possible interpretations. It will be clear that, from an epistemological point of view, if the first interpretation might be more widely accepted because it is less controversial, the second and third interpretations remain more problematic. Admittedly, the concept of moral costs could obscure and even distort our understanding of some legal realities. Moreover, the introduction of such costs for decision making is raising questions which cannot be answered through economic theory alone.

Commons in the Past and the Future of Law and Economics

Global Jurist ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksandar Stojanovic
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Transaction Cost ◽  
Economic Activity ◽  
Law And Economics ◽  
Institutional Arrangements ◽  
Analytic Framework ◽  
Yale University ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future

Abstract This article explores the role of commons in law and economics under the assumption that its strength (following Calabresi. 2016. The Future of Law and Economics: Essays in Reform and Recollection. Yale University Press) comes from the ability to amplify economic theory by integrating elements of institutional reality into the analytic framework. Following an analysis of the role that the spoilage of commons has played in the early developments of the transaction cost framework, the article considers the ways in which the success of commons could amplify the law and economics further. I conclude these costs could be conceptualized by extending Calabresi’s own past work on the role of values in institutional arrangements in the direction of understanding the contributions and losses of different arrangements concerning the capacity of values motivate economic activity.

scholarly journals Sources of financial synchronism: Arbitrage theory and the promise of risk-free profit

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Langenohl
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Financial Markets ◽  
Practical Approach ◽  
Social Imaginary ◽  
Financial Transaction ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Financial Economy ◽  
Financial Practices

This article argues that the temporality of the financial economy ought to be seen as radically synchronistic. ‘Synchronism’ refers to both an epistemological and practical approach that addresses finance neither with a view to the past nor to the future, but is instead focused on the moment that a financial transaction is settled (i.e., the horizon of trading). From this perspective, the article expands the scope of current social theorizing on financial markets, which is characterized by a preoccupation with the futurity of financial markets and products. It suggests that financial synchronism can be traced back to certain developments in economic theory since the so-called ‘marginalist revolution’, which enabled the transfer of a certain optics informing market theories into financial practices. On these terms, financial synchronism is interpreted as a powerful social imaginary that crucially mediates the way contemporary societies face the contingency of the future.

scholarly journals The Future of the Progressive Personal Income Tax: How High Can It Go?

2019 ◽  
pp. 693-710
Author(s):  
Kevin Milligan
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Income Tax ◽  
High Income ◽  
Personal Income ◽  
Personal Income Tax ◽  
Skilled Workers ◽  
Tax Rate ◽  
Behavioural Responses ◽  
The Future ◽  
Upper Boundary

The author draws on economic theory and evidence to build the case for considering boundaries for the high-income tax rate. Because of behavioural responses to higher rates, an upper boundary arises; above it, the revenue loss from behavioural responses outweighs the revenue gain from the higher rate. However, this upper boundary can be pushed upward through stronger enforcement and may vary with non-tax considerations, such as shifts in the demand for and supply of highly skilled workers. This framework suggests that if higher rates are to raise revenue in Canada, serious measures must be taken to increase the upper boundary.

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