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Date: | Fri Mar 31 17:18:51 2006 |
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A quick response to John Womack's query:
The best places to search for production theory are (1) in the areas of
location theory and the role that distance from a central attractor plays in the
pricing of locational assets (Georgist economics if you please), (2) in the
study of agglomeration economies and industrial districts there is a wealth of
information about patterns of production and scale economies, and last but not
least, (3) when understanding the problem of open-access production situation
a/k/a the "tragedy of the commons" a clear distinction needs to be made between
diminishing returns and negative returns and how and why property rights
arrangement encourage one result rather than another. I might add also (4) the
fledgling field of economic sociology where the idea that social networks
constitute also a sort of social capital that aid production is being developed with
ferocious speed by graduate students who understand the basic neoclassical
framework. If this isn't a wonderful fruit-basket of ideas about production
theory, then I do not know what is. I am sure there are other areas in economics broadly
defined where production theory is discussed as well but here are some spontaneous
responses to the question asked.
I know that John Womack is interested in the role technological ideas play in
economics. I think that there is now a general consensus that engineers
cannot really solve many "economic" problems because economic problems are about
choosing and ranking priorities. Engineering provides only one part and
perhaps a tiny part of what we understand to be the economic calculation problem in
economics.
Laurence Moss
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