EconRoots

The economist Tyler Cowen has argued that growth should be a stubborn attachment for economists. In today’s episode you will get an idea of why. We start with Solow who’s exogenous growth model is highly famous. From him we learn the power of ideas and how they spread to create growth and property from Romer, and finally the inventor of the carbon tax Nordhaus. This is an exciting episode indeed, and full of great reasons why growth matters, we also talk about the coolest wedding an economist can imagine, chartered cities and why light is more important than you might think.

References:

Jones, C. I. (2019). Paul Romer: Ideas, nonrivalry, and endogenous growth. The Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 121(3), 859-883

Nordhaus, William D. 1997. "Do Real Output and Real Wage Measures Capture Reality? The History of Light Suggests Not." The Economics of New Goods. Edited by Robert J. Gordon and Timothy F. Bresnahan. University of Chicago Press for the National Bureau of Economic Research. 27–70.

Nordhaus prize lecture: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2018/nordhaus/lecture/

Nordhaus banquet speech: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2018/nordhaus/speech/ 

Romer prize lecture: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2018/romer/lecture/ 

Solow prize lecture: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1987/solow/lecture/

Solow banquet speech: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1987/solow/speech/ 

Solow 1957 Technical Change and the Aggregate Production Function

Welcome to EconRoots. A podcast on the history of Economic Thought brought to you by CEPOS and your host Stefan Sløk-Madsen. As a bonus to our regular seasons we aim to bring you exciting interviews with relevant and stimulating economists and scholars within or related to the field of economics. We call these, Econ Roots talk. 

In today’s talk recorded at the APEE conference 2022 in Las Vegas, we are honored to be joined by Dr. Siri A. Terjesen who is Associate Dean and Phil Smith Professor of Entrepreneurship at Florida Atlantic University, and Professor at the Norwegian School of Economics in Bergen, Norway. Dr. Terjesen is a nationally recognized expert within several fields, and e very gifted teacher. In todays talk we ask her what, if anything, the history of economic thought and the economic classics can teach business school students? We also take this much treasured opportunity to talk about gender diversity in boardrooms – a topic Dr. Terjesen knows intimately well and has published important research on. Full disclosure, Dr. Terjesen served on Stefans Phd committee, and was a hard but fair evaluator. 

References

Examples of Siri’s research:

Women directors on corporate boards: A review and research agenda

S Terjesen, R Sealy, V Singh, Corporate governance: an international review 17 (3), 320-337

Does the presence of independent and female directors impact firm performance? A multi-country study of board diversity

S Terjesen, EB Couto, PM Francisco, Journal of Management & Governance 20 (3), 447-483

Female presence on corporate boards: A multi-country study of environmental context

S Terjesen, V Singh, Journal of business ethics 83 (1), 55-63

Board diversity: Moving the field forward

RB Adams, J de Haan, S Terjesen, H van Ees, Corporate Governance: An International Review 23 (2), 77-82

Trade is like the air, if it wasn’t there, we would die. But most don’t think much about it. Well, thank the good creator we have economists, because some of those do think about it. In this episode we explain trade theory by recapping the old greats Adam Smith and David Ricardo. Before moving into the joint recipient in 1977, Bertil Gotthard Ohlin and James Meade. From here we talk about Paul Robin Krugman, today more generally known for punditry, his contribution to new trade theory and economic geometry was well deserved of his 2008 prize. Particularly Meade and and Krugman are in different ways funny to read. We end the episode with a more general talk on the importance of trade.

In season 1 (Danish) we reviewed the history of economic thought before WWII. The coming seasons are dedicated to the Nobel Price in Economics, and I am joined by economist Otto Brøns-Petersen. The Nobel price is a good benchmark for how the field and profession of economics developed after WWII. We will focus both on the scientific contributions and on the people behind them. These are all star economists and worthy of your time and attention. Some will mainly feature in one episode, others in several. We therefore advice that you listen in the thematic order we propose – but it is up to you. Rest assured, we will cover all… Eventually.

References:

Bertil Gotthard Ohlin Prize Lecture (1977): https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1977/ohlin/lecture/

James Meade Banquet Speech (1977): https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1977/meade/speech/

James Meade Prize Lecture (1977): https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1977/meade/lecture/

Paul Robin Krugman Banquet Speech (2008): www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2008/krugman/speech/

Paul Robin Krugman Prize Lecture (2008): www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2008/krugman/lecture/

I dag er vi kommet til en af de vigtigste intellektuelle skoler både inden og uden for økonomi i det 20. århundrede: Chicago-skolen. På dansk tit kaldet monetaristerne. Jeg skriver skoler i flertal, fordi mange lider af den misforståelse, at der er tale om en fælles skole, der deler metode, interesse og mål. Det er ikke rigtigt, der er minimum tre, nok fire, og muligvis flere Chicago-skoler alt efter, hvor fint man deler kagen. Der er markante forskelle i særligt deres fokus og metode valg, og det er noget af det, som vi skal tale om i dag. Store tænkere som Friedman, Becker og Knight vil blive omtalt, og det er intellektuelt imponerende stof, da det økonomiske fakultet på University of Chicago kan bryste sig med 13 nobelpriser!

Har du nogensinde tænkt over, hvad økonomi er for en videnskab? Hvordan opstod den, og hvem var dens grundlæggere?

Eller har du interesseret dig for moderne diskussioner om samfundet, herunder ulighed, ressourceforbrug eller konkurrence? Hvis dette er tilfældet, er økonomiens teorihistorie vigtig og nyttig for dig. Den type af diskussioner er nemlig mindst lige så gammel som den økonomiske videnskab selv, og du vil i dens rødder også finde rødderne til de moderne argumenter.

Til dagens afsnit har jeg læst:

Becker, G. S. (1993). The Economic Way of Looking at Behavior. Journal of Political Economy, s. 385-409.

Coase, R. (oktober 1960). The Problem of Social Cost. Journal of Law and Economics, s. 1-44.

Friedman, M. (1953). Essays in Positive Economics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Friedman, M. (1962). Capitalism and Freedom. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Friedman, M. (1970). The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profit. The New York Times Magazine.

Friedman, M., & Friedman, R. (1980). Free to Choose: A Personal Statement. San Diego: Harcourt.

Hayek, F. A. (1948). Individualism and Economic Order. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Knight, H. F. (1921). Risk, Uncertainty and Profit. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Knight, F. H. (1982). Freedom and Reform. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund Inc.

Levitt, S. D., & Dubner, S. J. (2005). Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. New York: William Morrow.

Stigler, G. J. (1971). The Theory of Economic Regulation. The Bell Journal of Economics and Management Science, s. 3-21.

Viner, J. (2017). Lectures in Economics 301. Abingdon-on-Thames: Taylor and Francis.

Jeg skal beklage en fortalelse i dagens afsnit, hvor jeg på et tidspunkt omtaler Jacob Viner som Henry.

I like to dedicate this season to my teachers Ole Bruus and Bruce Caldwell. All mistakes and mispronunciations are mine alone and no fault of theirs.

Har du nogensinde tænkt over, hvad økonomi er for en videnskab? Hvordan opstod den, og hvem var dens grundlæggere?

Eller har du interesseret dig for moderne diskussioner om samfundet, herunder ulighed, ressourceforbrug eller konkurrence? Hvis dette er tilfældet, er økonomiens teorihistorie vigtig og nyttig for dig. Den type af diskussioner er nemlig mindst lige så gammel som den økonomiske videnskab selv, og du vil i dens rødder også finde rødderne til de moderne argumenter.

I dagens afsnit skal vi tale om en baron. En baron der af mange anses som det 20. århundredes største økonom, nemlig John Maynard Keynes. Vi kommer til at beskæftige os med ham ift. ham som person og hans tid. Keynes var en kompleks og spændende herre som udover økonomi havde stor passion for kulturliv, aktiehandel og politik, men måske også var en anelse for blåøjet i hans fokusering på den korte bane. Derfor vil vi også beskæftige os med hans kritikere, såsom Hayek, Buchanan og Friedman. 

Der er meget mere at vide om Keynes og til de særligt interesserede, har min dygtige underviser Professor Caldwell disse noter:

The literature on Keynes is gargantuan; one is tempted to paraphrase Mill on value theory and say that, as far as our knowledge of Keynes is concerned, nothing remains for the present or any future author to clear up. There is first of all The Collected Writings of John Maynard Xeynes, Austin Robinson and Donald Moggridge, eds., 30 volumes (London: Macmillan [for the Royal Economic Society], 1971-89).

Confident of their value Keynes seems to have written every thought down, preserving them in notes stuck on a spike on his desk, in diaries and in letters to others. Thus The Collected Writings, in addition to eleven volumes containing all of Keynes' major published writings, include two devoted to correspondence and thirteen covering other "activities." Especially important are volumes 13, 14 and 29 (the last a supplement necessitated by the discovery, in the winter of 1975-76 at Keynes's summer house in Tilton, of a laundry hamper full of papers) on the development and defense of The Treatise on Money and The General Theory. This huge primary source has been a gold mine for Keynes scholars. Even so, the editors have been criticized on occasion for their selectivity, and an additional multi-volume work edited by Rod O'Donnell entitled The Collected Philosophical and Other Writings of J.M. Keynes is now underway.

 The starting point in the secondary literature was once Roy Harrod's long (656 pages), eloquent and nuanced paean, The Life of John Maynard Keynes (N.Y.: Harcourt Brace, 1951; N.Y.: Norton, 1982) and Seymour Harris, ed. The New Economics. Keynes' Influence on Theory and Public Policy (N.Y.: Knopf, 1947), the latter a collection of essays by many major economists of the day.  More recently two impressive works have appeared. D.E. Moggridge's (941 pp.) Maynard Keynes: An Economist’s Biography (London: Routledge, 1992) is somewhat dry, but comprehensive, and as an economist he is in the position to comment upon a half a century of economists' writings on Keynes, and Keynes’ own writings on economics. The historian Robert Skidelsky's three volume life of Keynes is comprehensive and beautifully written: John Maynard Keynes. Hopes Betrayed 1883-1920, Volume 1 (N.Y.: Viking, [1983], 1986),  JMK: The Economist as Saviour 1920-1937, Volume 2 (London: Macmillan, 1992), andJMK. Fighting for Britain, 1937-46 Volume 3 (London: Macmillan, 2000). For a one volume treatment that condenses the three, see Skidelsky’s John Maynard Keynes 1883-1946: Economist, Philosopher, Statesman (London: Penguin, 2005). Two comprehensive collections of articles on Keynes...