nep-hpe  New Economics Papers on History and Philosophy of Economics
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Issue of 2019‒10‒07
nine papers chosen by
Erik Thomson (University of Manitoba)
http://ep.repec.org/pth72

[Selections by Humberto Barreto for SHOE list.]

1. The economics of eudaimonia
  Pugno, Maurizio
3. Recovering Tinbergen
  Morgan, Mary S.
9. In Search of Reforms for Growth: New Stylized Facts on Policy and
    Growth Outcomes
  William Easterly

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1. The economics of eudaimonia
  Pugno, Maurizio
 Research in the Economics of Happiness has recently paid increasing attention
 to ‘eudaimonia’, which is a conception of happiness originated in ancient
 Greek philosophy, and in particular in Aristotle’s philosophy. Since
 ‘eudaimonia’ is a way of life rather than a circumscribed goal, its
 understanding requires a dynamic analytical structure. To this end, the paper
 provides two main contributions. First, in order to facilitate reading by the
 economists of Aristotle’s work, this is translated in modern economic terms,
 i.e. eudaimonia is described as an individual activity that transforms inputs
 into outputs. Second, this description is reformulated, with the help of
 studies in psychology and anthropology, in a modern ‘economic approach to
 eudaimonia’, which focuses on human development, i.e. on the development of
 the skills which are typically human. A number of implications are then
 discussed: about how some weaknesses of Aristotle’s conception of eudaimonia
 can be amended (e.g. the objective/subjective reconciliation); about the
 greater robustness of eudaimonia with respect to hedonism as two alternative
 pathways to happiness that people can choose; and about the advantages of the
 policy implications of eudaimonia.
  JEL: A12 I31 O15
  Keywords: happiness; eudaimonia; Aristotle; well-being; hedonism
  Date: 2019–09–30
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:96251&r=hpe


3. Recovering Tinbergen
  Morgan, Mary S.
 From the long viewpoint of history of economics, the two most important
 contributions that Jan Tinbergen made to economics are surely the development
 of the first macro-econometric model and a general theory of economic
 policy-making. This paper explores these two innovations to recover why they
 deserve such recognition, analyses their technical and conceptual depths, and
 shows how they relate to the economic history of the period and his personal
 history. In the process, it becomes clear that they are not separate
 innovations, but, as Tinbergen recognised, involved the same logic; and as we
 can recognise, were driven by the same ambition to make economics usable in
 the world.
  JEL: B20 B31 O21
  Keywords: history of econometrics; theory of policy; jan tinbergen
  Date: 2019–09
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:101409&r=hpe


9. In Search of Reforms for Growth: New Stylized Facts on Policy and
    Growth Outcomes
  William Easterly
 The lack of growth response to “Washington Consensus” policy reforms in the
 1980s and 1990s led to widespread doubts about the value of such reforms.
 This paper updates these stylized facts by analyzing moderate to extreme
 levels of inflation, black market premiums, currency overvaluation, negative
 real interest rates and abnormally low trade shares to GDP. It finds three
 new stylized facts: (1) policy outcomes worldwide have improved a lot since
 the 1990s, (2) improvements in policy outcomes and improvements in growth
 across countries are correlated with each other (3) growth has been good
 after reform in Africa and Latin America, in contrast to the “lost decades”
 of the 80s and 90s. This paper makes no claims about causality. However, if
 the old stylized facts on disappointing growth accompanying reforms led to
 doubts about economic reforms, new stylized facts should lead to some
 positive updating of such beliefs.
  JEL: O1 O4 O47
  Date: 2019–09
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26318&r=hpe

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