Is There Progress In Economics

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The End of Progress

Author : Graeme Maxton
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 0470829982
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (78 download)

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Book Synopsis The End of Progress by : Graeme Maxton

Download or read book The End of Progress written by Graeme Maxton and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2011-08-30 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A cold, hard look at how modern economics has failed us and why we need a new measure of progress Modern economics has fallen short. It has widened the gap between rich and poor. It has not allocated the world's resources fairly. It has brought the West to the brink of financial ruin. It has placed short-term gain before long-term progress. And it has made us focus on the individual, not the society. The end result is a worldwide financial crisis of epic proportions and a planet being scraped clean of the resources needed by future generations, and things are only getting worse. In The End of Progress: How Modern Economics Has Failed Us popular economist Graeme Maxton looks at what went wrong, and what we can do to get ourselves back on track. During the Age of Enlightenment society flourished, propelled by the wonder of new discoveries, radical ideas for economic and social development, and a sense that we all had a responsibility to improve our world. It's time to get back to those ideals, step back and examine our values, and work out what humankind really needs. Presents a chilling look at our current financial system along with a compelling argument for what we need to change Argues for new measures of progress that emphasize what really matters, not personal greed Offers a timely look at our broken society and where we're headed next A thought-provoking, informative book, The End of Progress looks at what got us into our present mess, and shines light onto the road ahead.

The Pricing of Progress

Author : Eli Cook
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674982541
Total Pages : 365 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (749 download)

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Book Synopsis The Pricing of Progress by : Eli Cook

Download or read book The Pricing of Progress written by Eli Cook and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2017-09-25 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did Americans come to quantify their society’s progress and well-being in units of money? In today’s GDP-run world, prices are the standard measure of not only our goods and commodities but our environment, our communities, our nation, even our self-worth. The Pricing of Progress traces the long history of how and why we moderns adopted the monetizing values and valuations of capitalism as an indicator of human prosperity while losing sight of earlier social and moral metrics that did not put a price on everyday life. Eli Cook roots the rise of economic indicators in the emergence of modern capitalism and the contested history of English enclosure, Caribbean slavery, American industrialization, economic thought, and corporate power. He explores how the maximization of market production became the chief objective of American economic and social policy. We see how distinctly capitalist quantification techniques used to manage or invest in railroad corporations, textile factories, real estate holdings, or cotton plantations escaped the confines of the business world and seeped into every nook and cranny of society. As economic elites quantified the nation as a for-profit, capitalized investment, the progress of its inhabitants, free or enslaved, came to be valued according to their moneymaking abilities. Today as in the nineteenth century, political struggles rage over who gets to determine the statistical yardsticks used to gauge the “health” of our economy and nation. The Pricing of Progress helps us grasp the limits and dangers of entrusting economic indicators to measure social welfare and moral goals.

The Mismeasure of Progress

Author : Stephen J. Macekura
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022673644X
Total Pages : 325 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (267 download)

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Book Synopsis The Mismeasure of Progress by : Stephen J. Macekura

Download or read book The Mismeasure of Progress written by Stephen J. Macekura and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2020-11-04 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few ideas in the past century have had wider financial, political, and governmental impact than that of economic growth. The common belief that endless economic growth, as measured by Gross Domestic Product, is not only possible but actually essential for the flourishing of civilization remains a powerful policy goal and aspiration for many. In The Mismeasure of Progress, Stephen J. Macekura exposes a historical road not taken, illuminating the stories of the activists, intellectuals, and other leaders who long argued that GDP growth was not all it was cracked up to be. Beginning with the rise of the growth paradigm in the 1940s and 1950s and continuing through the present day, The Mismeasure of Progress is the first book on the myriad thinkers who argued against growth and the conventional way progress had been measured and defined. For growth critics, questioning the meaning and measurement of growth was a necessary first step to creating a more just, equal, and sustainable world. These critics argued that focusing on growth alone would not resolve social, political, and environmental problems, and they put forth alternate methods for defining and measuring human progress. ?In today’s global political scene—marked by vast inequalities of power and wealth and made even more fraught by a global climate emergency—the ideas presented by these earlier critics of growth resonate more loudly than ever. Economic growth appealed to many political leaders because it allowed them to avoid addressing political trade-offs and class conflict. It sustained the fiction that humans are somehow separate from nonhuman “nature,” ignoring the intimate and dense connections between the two. In order to create a truly just and equitable society, Macekura argues, we need a clear understanding of our collective needs beyond growth and more holistic definitions of progress that transcend economic metrics like GDP.

Is There Progress in Economics?

Author : Stephan Boehm
Publisher : Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1843765624
Total Pages : 433 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (437 download)

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Book Synopsis Is There Progress in Economics? by : Stephan Boehm

Download or read book Is There Progress in Economics? written by Stephan Boehm and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2002-01-01 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is There Progress in Economics? should be given relatively high marks. First, the quality of the papers is quite high, and second, the editors did a relatively good job of selecting, arranging and editing the contributions so that the volume really does focus on the question in its title. The editors introduction also contributes to the overall effect by attempting to tie all of the papers together into a reasonably tight bundle. D. Wade Hands, Economic Record This thought-provoking book discusses the concept of progress in economics and investigates whether any advance has been made in its different spheres of research. The authors look back at the history, successes and failures of their respective fields and thoroughly examine the notion of progress from an epistemological and methodological perspective. The idea of progress is particularly significant as the authors regard it as an essentially contested concept which can be defined in many ways theoretically or empirically; locally or globally; or as encouraging or impeding the existence of other research traditions. The authors discuss the idea that for progress to make any sense there must be an accumulation of knowledge built up over time rather than the replacement of ideas by each successive generation. Accordingly, they are not concerned with estimating the price of progress, reminiscing in the past, or assessing what has been lost. Instead they apply the complex mechanisms and machinery of the discipline to sub-fields such as normative economics, monetary economics, trade and location theory, Austrian economics and classical economics to critically assess whether progress has been made in these areas of research. Bringing together authoritative and wide-ranging contributions by leading scholars, this book will challenge and engage those interested in philosophy, economic methodology and the history of economic thought. It will also appeal to economists in general who are interested in the advancement of their profession.

The Economics of Growth

Author : Philippe Aghion
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262553104
Total Pages : 519 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (625 download)

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Book Synopsis The Economics of Growth by : Philippe Aghion

Download or read book The Economics of Growth written by Philippe Aghion and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2024-09-17 with total page 519 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive, rigorous, and up-to-date introduction to growth economics that presents all the major growth paradigms and shows how they can be used to analyze the growth process and growth policy design. This comprehensive introduction to economic growth presents the main facts and puzzles about growth, proposes simple methods and models needed to explain these facts, acquaints the reader with the most recent theoretical and empirical developments, and provides tools with which to analyze policy design. The treatment of growth theory is fully accessible to students with a background no more advanced than elementary calculus and probability theory; the reader need not master all the subtleties of dynamic programming and stochastic processes to learn what is essential about such issues as cross-country convergence, the effects of financial development on growth, and the consequences of globalization. The book, which grew out of courses taught by the authors at Harvard and Brown universities, can be used both by advanced undergraduate and graduate students, and as a reference for professional economists in government or international financial organizations. The Economics of Growth first presents the main growth paradigms: the neoclassical model, the AK model, Romer's product variety model, and the Schumpeterian model. The text then builds on the main paradigms to shed light on the dynamic process of growth and development, discussing such topics as club convergence, directed technical change, the transition from Malthusian stagnation to sustained growth, general purpose technologies, and the recent debate over institutions versus human capital as the primary factor in cross-country income differences. Finally, the book focuses on growth policies—analyzing the effects of liberalizing market competition and entry, education policy, trade liberalization, environmental and resource constraints, and stabilization policy—and the methodology of growth policy design. All chapters include literature reviews and problem sets. An appendix covers basic concepts of econometrics.

Fully Grown

Author : Dietrich Vollrath
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226820041
Total Pages : 273 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (268 download)

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Book Synopsis Fully Grown by : Dietrich Vollrath

Download or read book Fully Grown written by Dietrich Vollrath and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2022-06-24 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vollrath challenges our long-held assumption that growth is the best indicator of an economy’s health. Most economists would agree that a thriving economy is synonymous with GDP growth. The more we produce and consume, the higher our living standard and the more resources available to the public. This means that our current era, in which growth has slowed substantially from its postwar highs, has raised alarm bells. But should it? Is growth actually the best way to measure economic success—and does our slowdown indicate economic problems? The counterintuitive answer Dietrich Vollrath offers is: No. Looking at the same facts as other economists, he offers a radically different interpretation. Rather than a sign of economic failure, he argues, our current slowdown is, in fact, a sign of our widespread economic success. Our powerful economy has already supplied so much of the necessary stuff of modern life, brought us so much comfort, security, and luxury, that we have turned to new forms of production and consumption that increase our well-being but do not contribute to growth in GDP. In Fully Grown, Vollrath offers a powerful case to support that argument. He explores a number of important trends in the US economy: including a decrease in the number of workers relative to the population, a shift from a goods-driven economy to a services-driven one, and a decline in geographic mobility. In each case, he shows how their economic effects could be read as a sign of success, even though they each act as a brake of GDP growth. He also reveals what growth measurement can and cannot tell us—which factors are rightly correlated with economic success, which tell us nothing about significant changes in the economy, and which fall into a conspicuously gray area. Sure to be controversial, Fully Grown will reset the terms of economic debate and help us think anew about what a successful economy looks like.

Open

Author : Johan Norberg
Publisher : Atlantic Books
ISBN 13 : 1786497174
Total Pages : 431 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (864 download)

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Book Synopsis Open by : Johan Norberg

Download or read book Open written by Johan Norberg and published by Atlantic Books. This book was released on 2020-09-03 with total page 431 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: AN ECONOMIST BOOK OF THE YEAR Humanity's embrace of openness is the key to our success. The freedom to explore and exchange - whether it's goods, ideas or people - has led to stunning achievements in science, technology and culture. As a result, we live at a time of unprecedented wealth and opportunity. So why are we so intent on ruining it? From Stone Age hunter-gatherers to contemporary Chinese-American relations, Open explores how across time and cultures, we have struggled with a constant tension between our yearning for co-operation and our profound need for belonging. Providing a bold new framework for understanding human history, bestselling author and thinker Johan Norberg examines why we're often uncomfortable with openness - but also why it is essential for progress. Part sweeping history and part polemic, this urgent book makes a compelling case for why an open world with an open economy is worth fighting for more than ever.

Scientific Progress

Author : Nicholas Rescher
Publisher : Pittsburgh : University of Pittsburgh Press
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 300 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (321 download)

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Book Synopsis Scientific Progress by : Nicholas Rescher

Download or read book Scientific Progress written by Nicholas Rescher and published by Pittsburgh : University of Pittsburgh Press. This book was released on 1978 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume examines the future prospects for research in the natural sciences and provides reasons for the cost-escalation of scientific work.

Doughnut Economics

Author : Kate Raworth
Publisher : Chelsea Green Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1603587969
Total Pages : 322 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (35 download)

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Book Synopsis Doughnut Economics by : Kate Raworth

Download or read book Doughnut Economics written by Kate Raworth and published by Chelsea Green Publishing. This book was released on 2018-03-08 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Economics is the mother tongue of public policy. It dominates our decision-making for the future, guides multi-billion-dollar investments, and shapes our responses to climate change, inequality, and other environmental and social challenges that define our times. Pity then, or more like disaster, that its fundamental ideas are centuries out of date yet are still taught in college courses worldwide and still used to address critical issues in government and business alike. That’s why it is time, says renegade economist Kate Raworth, to revise our economic thinking for the 21st century. In Doughnut Economics, she sets out seven key ways to fundamentally reframe our understanding of what economics is and does. Along the way, she points out how we can break our addiction to growth; redesign money, finance, and business to be in service to people; and create economies that are regenerative and distributive by design. Named after the now-iconic “doughnut” image that Raworth first drew to depict a sweet spot of human prosperity (an image that appealed to the Occupy Movement, the United Nations, eco-activists, and business leaders alike), Doughnut Economics offers a radically new compass for guiding global development, government policy, and corporate strategy, and sets new standards for what economic success looks like. Raworth handpicks the best emergent ideas—from ecological, behavioral, feminist, and institutional economics to complexity thinking and Earth-systems science—to address this question: How can we turn economies that need to grow, whether or not they make us thrive, into economies that make us thrive, whether or not they grow? Simple, playful, and eloquent, Doughnut Economics offers game-changing analysis and inspiration for a new generation of economic thinkers.

The Progress of Economics

Author : Warren Benjamin Catlin
Publisher : Ardent Media
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 792 pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis The Progress of Economics by : Warren Benjamin Catlin

Download or read book The Progress of Economics written by Warren Benjamin Catlin and published by Ardent Media. This book was released on 1962 with total page 792 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

The Economics of Arrival

Author : Trebeck, Katherine
Publisher : Policy Press
ISBN 13 : 1447337263
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (473 download)

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Book Synopsis The Economics of Arrival by : Trebeck, Katherine

Download or read book The Economics of Arrival written by Trebeck, Katherine and published by Policy Press. This book was released on 2019-01-15 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What do we want from economic growth? What sort of a society are we aiming for? In everyday economics, there is no such thing as enough, or too much, growth. Yet in the world’s most developed countries, growth has already brought unrivalled prosperity: we have ‘arrived’. More than that, through debt, inequality, climate change and fractured politics, the fruits of growth may rot before everyone has a chance to enjoy them. It’s high time to ask where progress is taking us, and are we nearly there yet? In fact, Trebeck and Williams claim in this ground-breaking book, the challenge is now to make ourselves at home with this wealth, to ensure, in the interests of equality, that everyone is included. They explore the possibility of ‘Arrival’, urging us to move from enlarging the economy to improving it, and the benefits this would bring for all.

Beyond Growth

Author : Herman E. Daly
Publisher : Beacon Press
ISBN 13 : 0807047066
Total Pages : 265 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (7 download)

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Book Synopsis Beyond Growth by : Herman E. Daly

Download or read book Beyond Growth written by Herman E. Daly and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2014-09-30 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Daly is turning economics inside out by putting the earth and its diminishing natural resources at the center of the field . . . a kind of reverse Copernican revolution in economics." --Utne Reader "Considered by most to be the dean of ecological economics, Herman E. Daly elegantly topples many shibboleths in Beyond Growth. Daly challenges the conventional notion that growth is always good, and he bucks environmentalist orthodoxy, arguing that the current focus on 'sustainable development' is misguided and that the phrase itself has become meaningless." --Mother Jones "In Beyond Growth, . . . [Daly] derides the concept of 'sustainable growth' as an oxymoron. . . . Calling Mr. Daly 'an unsung hero,' Robert Goodland, the World Bank's top environmental adviser, says, 'He has been a voice crying in the wilderness.'" --G. Pascal Zachary, The Wall Street Journal "A new book by that most far-seeing and heretical of economists, Herman Daly. For 25 years now, Daly has been thinking through a new economics that accounts for the wealth of nature, the value of community and the necessity for morality." --Donella H. Meadows, Los Angeles Times "For clarity of vision and ecological wisdom Herman Daly has no peer among contemporary economists. . . . Beyond Growth is essential reading." --David W. Orr, Oberlin College "There is no more basic ethical question than the one Herman Daly is asking." --Hal Kahn, The San Jose Mercury News "Daly's critiques of economic orthodoxy . . . deliver a powerful and much-needed jolt to conventional thinking." --Karen Pennar, Business Week Named one of a hundred "visionaries who could change your life" by the Utne Reader,Herman Daly is the recipient of many awards, including a Grawemeyer Award, the Heineken Prize for environmental science, and the "Alternative Nobel Prize," the Right Livelihood Award. He is professor at the University of Maryland's School of Public Affairs, and coauthor with John Cobb, Jr., of For the Common Good.

The Myth of Development

Author : Oswaldo de Rivero B.
Publisher : Zed Books
ISBN 13 : 9781856499491
Total Pages : 228 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (994 download)

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Book Synopsis The Myth of Development by : Oswaldo de Rivero B.

Download or read book The Myth of Development written by Oswaldo de Rivero B. and published by Zed Books. This book was released on 2001 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In order to prevent increasing social and political disorders, the author argues that many countries with primary production and explosive urban growth will have to abandon dreams of development to adopt a policy of national survival based on the search for water, food, and energy security - and the stabilization of their populations."--BOOK JACKET.

Stakeholder Capitalism

Author : Klaus Schwab
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 1119756138
Total Pages : 311 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (197 download)

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Book Synopsis Stakeholder Capitalism by : Klaus Schwab

Download or read book Stakeholder Capitalism written by Klaus Schwab and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2021-01-27 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reimagining our global economy so it becomes more sustainable and prosperous for all Our global economic system is broken. But we can replace the current picture of global upheaval, unsustainability, and uncertainty with one of an economy that works for all people, and the planet. First, we must eliminate rising income inequality within societies where productivity and wage growth has slowed. Second, we must reduce the dampening effect of monopoly market power wielded by large corporations on innovation and productivity gains. And finally, the short-sighted exploitation of natural resources that is corroding the environment and affecting the lives of many for the worse must end. The debate over the causes of the broken economy—laissez-faire government, poorly managed globalization, the rise of technology in favor of the few, or yet another reason—is wide open. Stakeholder Capitalism: A Global Economy that Works for Progress, People and Planet argues convincingly that if we don't start with recognizing the true shape of our problems, our current system will continue to fail us. To help us see our challenges more clearly, Schwab—the Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum—looks for the real causes of our system's shortcomings, and for solutions in best practices from around the world in places as diverse as China, Denmark, Ethiopia, Germany, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Singapore. And in doing so, Schwab finds emerging examples of new ways of doing things that provide grounds for hope, including: Individual agency: how countries and policies can make a difference against large external forces A clearly defined social contract: agreement on shared values and goals allows government, business, and individuals to produce the most optimal outcomes Planning for future generations: short-sighted presentism harms our shared future, and that of those yet to be born Better measures of economic success: move beyond a myopic focus on GDP to more complete, human-scaled measures of societal flourishing By accurately describing our real situation, Stakeholder Capitalism is able to pinpoint achievable ways to deal with our problems. Chapter by chapter, Professor Schwab shows us that there are ways for everyone at all levels of society to reshape the broken pieces of the global economy and—country by country, company by company, and citizen by citizen—glue them back together in a way that benefits us all.

Bourgeois Equality

Author : Deirdre N. McCloskey
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022652793X
Total Pages : 830 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (265 download)

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Book Synopsis Bourgeois Equality by : Deirdre N. McCloskey

Download or read book Bourgeois Equality written by Deirdre N. McCloskey and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2017-10-13 with total page 830 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The last 200 years have witnessed a 100-fold leap in well-being. Deirdre McCloskey argues that most people today are stunningly better off than their forbearers were in 1800, and that the rest of humanity will soon be. A purely materialist, incentivist view of economic change does not explain this leap. We have now the third in McCloskey's three-volume opus about how bourgeois values transformed Europe. Volume 3 nails the case for that transfiguration, telling us how aristocratic virtues of hierarchy were replaced by bourgeois virtues (more precisely, by attitudes toward virtues) that made it possible for ordinary folk with novel ideas to change the way people, farmed, manufactured, traveled, ruled themselves, and fought. It is a dramatic story, and joins a dramatic debate opened up by Thomas Piketty in his best-selling Capital in the 21st Century. McCloskey insists that economists are far too preoccupied by capital and saving, arguing against the position (of Piketty and most others) that capital induces a tendency to get more, that money reproduces itself, that riches are created from riches. Not so, our intrepid McCloskey shows. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, among the biggest wealth accumulators in our era, didn't get rich through the magic of compound interest on capital. They got rich through intellectual property, creating billions of dollars from virtually nothing. Capital was no more important an ingredient to the original Apple or Microsoft than cookies or cucumbers. The debate is between those who think riches are created from riches versus those who, with McCloskey, think riches are created from rags, between those who see profits as a generous return on capital, or profits coming from innovation that ultimately benefits us all.

Post-growth Economics and Society

Author : Isabelle Cassiers
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1351382977
Total Pages : 189 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (513 download)

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Book Synopsis Post-growth Economics and Society by : Isabelle Cassiers

Download or read book Post-growth Economics and Society written by Isabelle Cassiers and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-10-30 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We stand on the threshold of a "post-growth" world – one in which the relentless pursuit of economic growth has ceased to constitute a credible societal project. The symptoms that mark the end of an era are clear and incontrovertible: a return to the regularities of the past is illusory. The pursuit of economic growth no longer constitutes a credible societal project for ecological, social, and geopolitical reasons. Edited by an impressive array of experts, this book identifies several areas in which we must fundamentally rethink our societal organisation. They ask what it means to abandon the objective of economic growth; how we can encourage the emergence of other visions to guide society; how global visions and local transition initiatives should be connected; which modes of governance should be associated with the required social and technological innovations. Alongside the necessary respect of ecological limits and equity in distribution, the promotion of autonomy (involving all in the building of socio-political norms) could serve for guidance. The topics addressed over the chapters range from the future of work to the de-commodification of economic relations; the search for new indicators of progress to decentralized modes of governance; and from the circular economy to polycentric transitions. Each contribution brings a unique perspective, a piece of a larger puzzle to be assembled. Post-growth Economics and Society is an important volume to those who study ecological economics, political economy and the environment and society. It invites theorists as much as practitioners to re-explore the roots of our societal goals and play an active role in the systemic shift to come.

How Economics Shapes Science

Author : Paula Stephan
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674267559
Total Pages : 318 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (742 download)

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Book Synopsis How Economics Shapes Science by : Paula Stephan

Download or read book How Economics Shapes Science written by Paula Stephan and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2015-09-07 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The beauty of science may be pure and eternal, but the practice of science costs money. And scientists, being human, respond to incentives and costs, in money and glory. Choosing a research topic, deciding what papers to write and where to publish them, sticking with a familiar area or going into something new—the payoff may be tenure or a job at a highly ranked university or a prestigious award or a bump in salary. The risk may be not getting any of that. At a time when science is seen as an engine of economic growth, Paula Stephan brings a keen understanding of the ongoing cost-benefit calculations made by individuals and institutions as they compete for resources and reputation. She shows how universities offload risks by increasing the percentage of non-tenure-track faculty, requiring tenured faculty to pay salaries from outside grants, and staffing labs with foreign workers on temporary visas. With funding tight, investigators pursue safe projects rather than less fundable ones with uncertain but potentially path-breaking outcomes. Career prospects in science are increasingly dismal for the young because of ever-lengthening apprenticeships, scarcity of permanent academic positions, and the difficulty of getting funded. Vivid, thorough, and bold, How Economics Shapes Science highlights the growing gap between the haves and have-nots—especially the vast imbalance between the biomedical sciences and physics/engineering—and offers a persuasive vision of a more productive, more creative research system that would lead and benefit the world.