David Bell in Stirling has recently launched a blog on economic and policy issues surrounding the Scottish Constitutional debate. A link to the blog is here and it is already turning into a very useful source of information and insight on the key issue dominating Scottish public debate at present. There is obviously quite a lot of discussion ongoing about the lessons to be learned from the Irish experience including yesterday’s post on what would happen to national debt in a post-independence environment. Would be interested in people’s views on how Irish experiences more generally across policy domains should impact on the Scottish debate.
Author: Liam Delaney
There will be an event in the ESRI on November 30th on behavioural economics and public policy, co-organised by ESRI and the UCD Geary Institute. Keynote speakers are Robert Sugden, Professor of Economics at University of East Anglia and David Halpern, head of the behavioural insights team at the Cabinet Office. Details of how to register for the keynote sessions are on the ESRI website here (though the event is fully subscribed so just a waiting list for now). There will be a full day of talks prior to this and details of that programme are here.
My main purpose with this post is to point to some literature. People attending might be interested in some of the following links and reading:
Russell Sage Foundation reading list on behavioural economics here
Publications of the Behavioural Insights Team in the Cabinet Office are available here
The Chicago Law Review piece “Empirically Informed Regulation” by Cass Sunstein is a detailed account of the ideas and applications in this area over the last number of years.
The Brookings Institute publication “Policy and Choice: Public Finance through the lense of behavioural economics” is one of the best available introductions to this area.
New book on behavioral foundations of public policy edited by Eldar Shafir will likely be a required text in this area in the future. It covers many areas of policy and the behavioural science underpinning them.
Nudge by Thaler and Sunstein is a very influential account of the libertarian paternalism idea of how behavioural economics should be applied
Danny Blanchflower has a forthcoming book chapter critical of the role of academic economists during the crisis. I post it here for debate rather than as an endorsement of everything in it. An illustrative quote is below.
“I am greatly concerned that the economics profession has had so little involvement in the major issues of the day. That has resulted, in my view in some of the worst economic policy errors in a generation. Economists need to focus on real policy questions rather than simply on publishing trivial technical extensions in academic journal. I suspect that will also mean a movement away from theoretical papers with no data to papers that involve empirical testing and the search for patterns in the data.”
In February 2010, 20 Economists wrote to the British Chancellor to urge a speedier deficit reduction. The New Statesman followed them up for an article recently to ask if their views have changed. The responses are interesting.
The programme for this year’s event, being organised and hosted in UCC, is available on this link. Details below or on the website.
“University College Cork‘s (UCC) School of Economics are pleased to host the Irish Society of New Economists (ISNE) 9th annual conference.
The conference will take place on Thursday 23rd and Friday 24th of August, 2012.
If you wish to contact the local organising committee they can be contacted at isne2012@gmail.com.
The ISNE was formed to encourage research, information and social links among economists at the early stages of their careers in Ireland and Europe. The annual conference is intended for Masters, PhD students, and young professionals in the early stages of research. Eligibility to present has nothing to do with age. We strongly encourage those working on economics-related research in all settings to present.
The 2012 ISNE meeting will feature the work and findings of scholars in economics, econometrics and related fields, and will provide an excellent opportunity to present your own research results and work in progress.
We would encourage those who are participating in the conference or those who can not attend the conference this year to join the ISNE 2012 conference Linkedin group. This will allow a forum for discussion and announcements relating to the conference. To join the Linkedin group please simply click the Linkedin tab below. Linkedin
We look forward to meeting you in Cork in 2012.
The Local Organising Committee:
Robbie Butler (Lecturer in Economics UCC)
David Butler (Lecturer in Economics UCC)
Justin Doran (Lecturer in Economics UCC)”