N. Emrah Aydınonat

Adam Smith on Monopoly

A good overview of Smith’s views on monopoly:
Salvadori, Neri & Signorino, Rodolfo (2012) Adam Smith on Monopoly Theory. Making good a lacuna, http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/38411/1/MPRA_paper_38411.pdf

An Alternative History of Money

If you are interested in the origin and history of money, this is a must read.

L. Randall Wray (2012) “Introduction to an Alternative History of Money”, Levy Economics Institute, Working Paper 717, http://www.levyinstitute.org/pubs/wp_717.pdf

Is destruction intrinsically pleasurable?

According to this paper, YES! (Of course, you knew this already.)

Kessler, Esther & David Skuse (2012) Destructor Game, http://www.doctreballeco.uji.es/wpficheros/kessler_etal_2012.pdf
Abstract: Destructive behavior has mostly been investigated by games in which all players have the option to simultaneously destroy (burn) their partners’ money. In the destructor game, players are randomly paired and assigned the roles of destructor versus passive player. The destructor player chooses to destroy or not to destroy a share of his passive partner’s earnings. The passive partner cannot retaliate. In addition, a random event (nature) destroys a percentage of some passive subject’s earnings. From the destructor player’s view, destruction is benefit-less, costless, hidden and unilateral. Unilateral destruction diminishes with respect to bilateral destruction studies, but it does not vanish: 15% of the subjects choose to destroy. This result suggests that, at least for some, destruction is intrinsically pleasurable. Keywords: anti-social behaviour, nastiness, money-burning JEL: C72

The Experimental Economics of Religion

The Experimental Economics of Religion
Date: 2011-07
By: Robert Hoffmann
URL: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/cedex/documents/papers/2011-07.pdf
This article surveys the experimental economics approach to the study of religion. The field has a place in the context of the scientific study of religion generally and the social psychology of religion in particular, but employs distinct economic methods which promise new and different insights. In particular, certain features of the experimental approach as used by economists such as incentive compatibility are particularly appropriate for studying the effect of religion on individual behaviour. The paper discusses results obtained so far in terms of two roles of religion in shaping individual behaviour, i.e. as a social group identifier and as a set of values.
Keywords: religion, religiosity, experiments

New Paper: Institutions, Economics and the Development Quest

Institutions, Economics and the Development Quest
Date: 2012-04
By: Duarte N. Leite, Sandra T. Silva, Óscar Afonso
URL: http://www.fep.up.pt/investigacao/workingpapers/wp457.pdf
Institutions, crucial for the analysis of how agents deal with uncertainty, have been gaining increasing relevance on the Economic research agenda. In this paper, we analyze the institutional literature that provides insights into different research fields, aiming to explain why this perspective obtains better results than others, in the field of growth and Development Economics. In particular, we stress the relevance of New Institutional Economics as an adequate framework for a broad understanding of development issues.
Keywords: Institutions; Institutional change, Economic development
JEL: B52

New Paper: Economic Models as Analogies by Itzhak Gilboa et. al.

Gilboa, Itzhak; Andrew Postlewaite; Larry Samuelson & David Schmeidler (2011) “Economic Models as Analogies”, Penn Institute for Economic Research (PIER) Working Paper no.12-001, Online: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pen:papers:12-001&r=cbe

Abstract: People often wonder why economists analyze models whose assumptions are known to be false, while economists feel that they learn a great deal from such exercises. We suggest that part of the knowledge generated by academic economists is case-based rather than rule-based. That is, instead of offering general rules or theories that should be contrasted with data, economists often analyze models that are “theoretical cases”, which help understand economic problems by drawing analogies between the model and the problem. According to this view, economic models, empirical data, experimental results and other sources of knowledge are all on equal footing, that is, they all provide cases to which a given problem can be compared. We offer some complexity arguments that explain why case-based reasoning may sometimes be the method of choice; why economists prefer simple examples; and why a paradigm may be useful even if it does not produce theories.

Keywords: Methodology, Case-based reasoning
JEL: B40

CFP: ESHET 16th Annual Conference in St Petersburg

CFP-ESHET 16th Annual Conference in St Petersburg

The 16th Annual Conference of the European Society for the History of Economic Thought (ESHET) will be held at St. Petersburg State University and St. Petersburg State University of Economics and Finance (Russia), May 17-19, 2012. (Conference web site: http://eshet2012.ru). Continue reading CFP: ESHET 16th Annual Conference in St Petersburg

CFP: Summer School in History of Economic Thought

Summer School in History of Economic Thought, Economic Philosophy and Economic History, to take place in Lille (France) in September 2012.

Theme of the morning seminars: “Inequalities, Poverty, Discriminations”
Submission deadline: April, 9, 2012

Download the CFP for the 15th Summer School (PDF)

CFP: How to bring joy into economics

Call for papers
How to bring joy into economics – Revisiting Tibor Scitovsky (1910-2002)
Angevin-Aragonese Castle, Gaeta (Italy)
26-27 June, 2012 Continue reading CFP: How to bring joy into economics