Latvia’s Parliament votes for the Euro….

Anders Aslund of PIIE points that Latvia’s Parliament has voted for joining the Euro:

Why Capitalism inevitably leads to more inequality..( A historian’s perspective on inequality)

A food for thought long article by Jerry Z. Muller, Prof of history  at Catholic University of America.

He says both right and left are wrong about rising inequality:

Future of the Commons – Beyond Market Failure and Government Regulation

A brilliant e-book covering Lin Ostrom’s Hauek lecture (at IEA, UK) and papers explaining  Lin Ostrom’s work and applicattions in real world.

Exec summary of the publication:

Are ‘Modern’ Nation-States really modern? Looking at India and Sri Lanka

A nice paper by Devika Mittal.

She looks at this whole idea of Modern States and points how history plays a major role in making a modern nation.

How Washington is becoming the second city of US..

Nice article by Aaron Renn.

He shows how Washington DC is emerging as one of the best cities/regions in US:

The Washington, D.C., region has long been considered recession-proof, thanks to the remorseless expansion of the federal government in good times and bad. Yet it’s only now—as D.C. positively booms while most of the country remains in economic doldrums—that the scale of Washington’s prosperity is becoming clear. Over the past decade, the D.C. area has made stunning economic and demographic progress. Meanwhile, America’s current and former Second Cities, population-wise—Los Angeles and Chicago—are battered and fading in significance. Though Washington still isn’t their match in terms of population, it’s gaining on them in terms of economic power and national importance.

 

Riding in cars with boys: Elinor Ostrom’s adventures with the Police..

Well, if I had a choice I would just close myself and read all of Lin Ostrom (and Vincent Ostrom) works.

In this brilliant paper by  the trio from GMU - Peter J. Boettke, Jayme S. Lemke and Liya Palagashvili- we get more flavor of the brilliance of Ostrom works. Superbly titled it tells you what Ostrom has been saying all along – decentralised instis work much better than centralised instis.

Prof Ostrom began her journey with Police services (whether cities need larger and more centralised police services), The findings were then extended to other areas like commons etc:

Prof. Avinash Dixit’s suggestion to curb corruption (based on Lin Ostrom’s insights)

Prof Avinash Dixit has this interesting paper on resolving corruption in India (and elsewhere). He is to discuss the paper at IGIDR in early Feb as well.

His suggestion is very different from Kaushik Basu’s who wanted different incentives  for bribe taker and bribe giver. But am sure like Basu’s suggestion this should also bring some interest and discussion.

Prof. Dixit uses the community approach on lines of Lin Ostrom. Here corporates ostracize those companies which are found engaging in corruption. And this ostracisation is going to happen on terms agreed mutually by the industry.

How Mauritius changed its sugar industry following Schumpeterian creative destruction..

A nice speech from Rundheersing Bheenick, Governor of the Bank of Mauritius. He speaks on the occasion of Omnicane raising Medium term notes with StanC as its financial partner. It is a big event as Mauritius is looking at developing its orporate bond market. Omnicane is a sugar company in Mauritius.

In the speech, he speaks how Mauritian sugar industry responded to challenges imposed as Mauritius joined WTO:

How Iceland’s recovery from crisis was different…

A super analysis from Már Guðmundsson, Governor  Central bank of Iceland.

He shows how Iceland had a very different experience with respect to policy responses to the crisis and recovery from the same.

First Iceland did not bail out its banks. It could not as banks were nearly 10 times larger than its GDP. What they did instead was to save the depositors and conducted swap facility to provide foreign exchange. So, in the end Iceland averted a sovereign debt crisis which the developed world is facing:

From “Man-Cession” to “He-Covery”..

Silvio Contessi and Li Li of St Louis Fed have this nice short note on the topic.

They say the recent recession was basically a mancession where men lost more jobs thean women. Why? Because they formed higher share of employment in sectors like construction and housing. These latter sectors were affected the most in the crisis. hence men lost more jobs compared to women which were in sectors like education and healthcare.

And likewise recovery is basically a hecovery where recovery led to more men getting employed as the two sectors showed growth. However, recession has led to concerns on state finances which has impacted educaiton. So recovery has not impacted  women employed in education etc. However, faster growth will lead to jobs for women in otehr sectors:

Nudging to make MDGs more effective..

Nice paper by Varun Gauri of WB.

She proposes using the Nudge approach to simplify MDGs. This will make countries adopt them better:

Linking rising inequality to declining vocabulary..

What an amazing article by E. D. Hirsch, Jr. He is professor emeritus of education and humanities at the University of Virginia.

He refers to several books/papers/media comments over rising inequality in US:

A number of notable recent books, including Joseph Stiglitz’s The Price of Inequality and Timothy Noah’s The Great Divergence, lay out in disheartening detail the growing inequality of income and opportunity in the United States, along with the decline of the middle class. The aristocracy of family so deplored by Jefferson seems upon us; the counter-aristocracy of merit that long defined America as the land of opportunity has receded.

These writers emphasize global, technological, and sociopolitical trends in their analyses.

He says there is another reason for decline in inequality – low vocabulary amidst students. Low vocab leads to poor SAT scores which then lead to problems in college admission.

A proposal to save from climate policy changes – migrate to Greenland..

Klaus Desmet and Esteban Rossi-Hansberg have this super column in voxeu (based on their paper).

They say there are two commonly suggested ways to prevent global warming. mitigation and adaptation. They add migration to the list as well. People can move to cooler climates if temperatures rise across the globe. And it has happened in the past as well. So nothing new:

India’s inclusive political institutions and extractive economic institutions..

A hopeful paper on India’s economy and institutional development. It is by Ashima Goyal of IGIDR and is an interesting read.

She says India was blessed with inclusive political instis. But still could not grow as Acemoglu and Robinson suggested..

How Businesses can help Capitalism Repair Its Bruised Image…

Three suggestions from Lynn Forester de Rothschild, E.L. Rothschild  and Adam S. Posen of PIIE.

There is a sharp decline in believing capitalism is useful:

Evaluation of teaching public policy programs in East Asia..

A nice paper by Xun Wu, Allen Yuhung Lai (both of Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy) and Do Lim Choi of Chungnam National University.

They evaluate public policy programs taught in East Asia. The demand for such programs has risen as countries have moved towards democracy and demand for better governance.

Interview of Prof. Elhanan Helpman

Minneapolis Fed’s quarterly magazine always has these super long interviews of top econs and their work.

The recent edition profiled the work of Prof. Elhanan Helpman of Harvard Univ. Prof. Helpman is also on the perennial waitlist for the elusive Prize for his work on international trade. Together with Paul Krugman he is credited for developing New Trade Theory (apart from his super work on Growth Theory etc which the interview tells you).

Financial System as a network: Comparison of US,UK, Germany and Japan

A fab paper by Richard Sylla and Robert  Wright. They first look at how the different financial system structure came up in the 4 economies.

Each had a unique structure though Japan was more similar to Germany and US to UK. Then they look at the financial system from a network perspective and name each financial system as per one kind of a network.

Comparing European Union to Habsburg Monarchy

European crisis has led to many interesting comparisons with history. If anything, it has helped one understand and compare many historical events and movements with the European crisis.

Here is another super article by Richard Cooper comparing the European union to Habsburg Monarchy:

Azim Premji University’s Master of Development Course…A breath of fresh air

Two universities from two IT czars – Azim Premji (APU) and Shiv Nader (SNU). SNU has more courses whereas APU has just two – MA in development and MA in Education.

I was just going through the course design of MA in development course and was just amazed. This is exactly the kind of prescription most econs have suggested for revamping economics education post-crisis. It has this mix of economics, sociology, philosophy, politics, law etc with development. So you truly get interdisciplinary perspective on development unlike just economic development which most courses have. It is even more Indian in the sense that there is focus on castes, adivasis, religion etc.